Now, I must revise and extend my remarks. I found this site: https://www.aaas.org/page/historical-trends-federal-rd https://www.aaas.org/page/historical-trends-

Now, I must revise and extend my remarks. I found this site: https://www.aaas.org/page/historical-trends-federal-rd https://www.aaas.org/page/historical-trends-federal-rd From which you can download R&D spending as a percent of GDP in an excel spreadsheet. They also have nice breakdowns for research, development, and facilities. If you look at total Federal R&D (all of the 3 above), it has indeed declined as a percent of GDP (although not in real terms). 1976: 1.23% 1986: 1.2% 1996: 0.89% 2006: 0.99% 2016: 0.81% Then there is a plunge: 2017: 0.67% 2018: 0.71% but the plunge comes with an asterisk: "Beginning in FY 2017, a new official definition of R&D has been adopted by federal agencies. Late-stage development, testing, and evaluation programs, primarily within the Defense Department, are no longer counted as R&D. " So, it's fair to say Federal R&D spending is at least stagnant and probably in a slow decline as a percent of GDP.