A new wrinkle in all of this is the current practice of promoting research to the public. Many (most? practically all?) universities employ nontechnical people

A new wrinkle in all of this is the current practice of promoting research to the public. Many (most? practically all?) universities employ nontechnical people whose jobs it is to identify newsworthy research results that can be dumbed-down and puffed-up in press releases. Granting agencies do the same thing, either directly via newsletters and press releases, or indirectly, by encouraging research teams to hire public-relations people. Members of the public cannot be expected to be able to read, let alone understand, the dizzying array of specialized articles that are published on any given topic. Heck, this is a real challenge even for scientists looking at work that is slightly outside their domain of expertise. Some form of overview is necessary, but press releases, usually biased and ill-informed, are just not the way forward. But will press releases go away? No chance. This is how students get attracted to universities, and it's how alumni get encouraged to donate for that oh-so-important sports complex.