An academic position at an average no-name university is not at all "high status", nor does it pay well. But the larger argument I have: It wasn't too long ago

An academic position at an average no-name university is not at all "high status", nor does it pay well. But the larger argument I have: It wasn't too long ago that you could have a good work-life balance in academia. The requirements to get tenure continue to increase. A common refrain is "The work I did to get tenure will not get anyone tenure in my department today." Quite a few professors I know said they worked regular 40 hour weeks to get tenure. Fully agree with the author, though: No one is enforcing this from outside. This is a problem created by the academics themselves, and they alone have the power to fix it.