Why do we need academia for mentorships? Certainly academia is not useless (though I guess I was implying that in my previous post with the "Who needs them any

Why do we need academia for mentorships? Certainly academia is not useless (though I guess I was implying that in my previous post with the "Who needs them anyway?") but I do think that academic institutions will likely become less and less relevant. I'm currently in a PhD program studying Environmental Engineering and its so structured and balkanized and specialized that its really pretty ridiculous (and I'm at one of the more progressive, liberal Engineering programs in the country). It occurred to me that it would be incredibly interesting if, instead of having to research at Universities and thus, working within their outdated framework, what if people began researching at places like Google? What if companies like Google funded imaginative, interdisciplinary research? Stuff that gets bogged down in the highly procedural academia? I might try and think of a way to better articulate this idea and see what the HN community thinks of it...