It's not easy. Particularly for the US where NASA gives the only sizeable national science programme remaining. In the UK, and others, most of what there was go

It's not easy. Particularly for the US where NASA gives the only sizeable national science programme remaining. In the UK, and others, most of what there was got privatised. What's left is fractional contributions to ESA, CERN etc. Much less by percentage of GDP, leaving nearly all to be done by the private sector. Thing is, I suspect government in the 1960s could have set up an independent body to oversee science funding, that actually was independent, and had a level of trust by both scientists and the public. On both sides of the Atlantic, by either political party, though my knowledge of US is somewhat more limited. Today? I don't think I, or pretty much anyone, trusts either public or private. What's left? A BDFL? Well, first find the benevolent dictator I suppose, few of the current crop are benevolent. At which point I don't know how to fix it.