It's probably not the absolute number of PhD students that's the problem. It's the crushing despair of uncertainty, the publish-and-eventually-still-perish inci

It's probably not the absolute number of PhD students that's the problem. It's the crushing despair of uncertainty, the publish-and-eventually-still-perish incinerator, the cult of positive results, the completely ridiculous inefficiency of the actual work (because it's done mostly by inexperienced grad students, and by the time they know what's up they are already off to some godforsaken postdoc or worse, or leave academia for good if they are lucky). Not to mention the whole tenure system is questionable. Yes, it's good that at least a few percent of academia has job security, but the selection process is full of perverse incentives and arguably society could get better results if tenure was for 10 years and based on a lottery.