In a lot of ways. This is due to the professionalization of the natural sciences. We need to let amateurs be amateurs while still contributing meaningfully let

In a lot of ways. This is due to the professionalization of the natural sciences. We need to let amateurs be amateurs while still contributing meaningfully let. Let teachers teach professionally and let physicists in industrial applications do the same. Obviously most experimental physics costs money, but that doesn't mean that everything needs to be a status competition. When there are a few slots, a lot of status up for grabs, and an entrenched elite, you get exactly what you describe. Far too few true elites, and a great deal too many trained to be "elites". But the very nature of elites is that they rise despite these hurdles, or perhaps because of them.