"... academic bullshit" is quite broad. Since my Ph.D. is in applied math and since for a while I was a college prof, I have a view: A common criterion for pu

"... academic bullshit" is quite broad. Since my Ph.D. is in applied math and since for a while I was a college prof, I have a view: A common criterion for publishing research was that the work was "new, correct, and significant". Then what should be the criterion for a Ph.D. dissertation? Easily and commonly enough, "new, correct, and significant", or "an original contribution to knowledge worthy of publication". Rest of the criteria for a Ph.D.? Good background of knowledge in the field, both for research and for teaching. Sooooo, have qualifying exams (QE). The QE I took were not easy. Only about 20% passed. I was the best in the class on 4 of the 5 exams, but what I did for all 4 was due heavily to independent study, 3 before grad school and the 4th in a summer during grad school. So, in what I saw, a Ph.D. was not easy, and there was no glut of graduates. By the way, I paid nothing to the university. Then, due ONLY to help my wife, who suffered terribly for her Ph.D., I took a faculty position. They wanted research, and anything published in any academic journal was sufficient. No need to get financial grants. My attitude: (1) The research they were asking for, and from the other profs were getting, was junk. (2) I wasn't getting paid enough: Really, brought two cars and left with the same two. Didn't have enough to buy a house and start a family. Net, LOST money. So, I had no respect for that career direction. It does appear that broadly there has been a big change, at least in US academics: Somehow it is popular to insist that all profs do research -- just teaching is no longer sufficient. Soooo, we get a lot of papers published. Papers? You want papers? Okay, we'll give you papers .... My summary view: To buy a house, support a family, have a good, secure life, need to look at the US economy, say, more closely than just stay in school, get a Ph.D., accept a position as an assistant prof. E.g., at present the US has a lot of $1 million houses: It appears that few of them were bought just from earnings as an assistant prof, and the people in those houses found some sources of money better than just such a college prof salary.