Whether undergraduates (really their parents and the government supplying their loans and grants) attend and pay for a school is based on the "brand" and more t

Whether undergraduates (really their parents and the government supplying their loans and grants) attend and pay for a school is based on the "brand" and more than the education, so the institution cares more about the brand than the education. Research, however, directly brings in money through grants, and "better" research faculty publish more and bring in more grant money. The incentives are very straightforward and the universities are responding to them. If NIH, DOD, etc., had a metric on grant applications asking what percentage of department faculty were in full-time professional teaching positions (not adjuncts, educators with no research expectation, often called "Professor of Practice") targeting ≥20%, this ship would right itself in a couple of years.