I don't think administration overheads in universities have grown because admin workers are easier to cut than academics. It's more like money acting like a riv

I don't think administration overheads in universities have grown because admin workers are easier to cut than academics. It's more like money acting like a river of treacle. It moves slowly, spreads out slowly and may never make it to the destination at all. If you dump a giant bucket of treacle in the middle of the the floor all at once it takes a long time for any to reach the walls and most of it will end up sticking to the place where it was dropped. Money flows into universities via the administrators. It mostly gets stuck there because that's what benefits the admins. I don't think it's a conscious choice - there's just no incentive for universities to use money wisely. It's hardly a competitive market.