What was the situation in the 1920s? The US created another higher education system in the postwar era to handle the demand created by the GI Bill. The number

What was the situation in the 1920s? The US created another higher education system in the postwar era to handle the demand created by the GI Bill. The number of open professor slots at these new schools could not have been filled just by the children of existing academics, so there was a window when newcomers could enter academia much more easily than what would come after, and probably even more easily than what came before. Now we have children and grandchildren of the gigantic cohort of PhD holders from the GI Bill era competing for jobs when the student population is stagnant or declining. Given that we won't be doubling the size of higher education anytime soon, I don't foresee opportunities like what we witnessed in the 70s returning.