This is true in many ways. But as always it doesn't have to be that way, it has arrived at this point due to a combination of sometimes perverse incentives and

This is true in many ways. But as always it doesn't have to be that way, it has arrived at this point due to a combination of sometimes perverse incentives and natural human tendencies. I was thinking for a while that having a mandatory retirement age could be a good idea, but retirement is becoming obsolete for economic reasons, and scientists are now employed in so many different ways by so many different institutions that I don't think it is possible.