I guess this would be a case of applied math ;-) Joking aside, of course it is not on you to provide evidence. I would probably start with seeing how many univ

I guess this would be a case of applied math ;-) Joking aside, of course it is not on you to provide evidence. I would probably start with seeing how many universities have pure math departments over a time axis from now back to 2000 or so. It might even be that the total funding increases, but is more centralised in the big universities. So a total funding timeline would also be good.