Academics can't stop publishing irrelevant papers, since funding is granted based on publication history. To get really novel things done researchers must keep

Academics can't stop publishing irrelevant papers, since funding is granted based on publication history. To get really novel things done researchers must keep a steady stream of publications. This is easiest achieved by making somewhat easy, incremental research to a large part. This incentive, or even rather selection, problem is, I think the core reason for this ancient publishing model.