Agreed. If we had a European style system where a master's + PhD could be done in 4 years versus the insanely long duration of American PhDs, the whole system w

Agreed. If we had a European style system where a master's + PhD could be done in 4 years versus the insanely long duration of American PhDs, the whole system would be better off. Of course, faculty have no incentive to graduate their students quickly (they are trying to amortize the year or so of ramp up time). It really has to be up to the funding agencies to refuse to fund any students beyond year 4 unless there are extenuating circumstances.