It's a big feedback loop. You go to college, you get a degree, you become a middle manager or administrator of some type, you go work at a university since you

It's a big feedback loop. You go to college, you get a degree, you become a middle manager or administrator of some type, you go work at a university since you didn't learn the skills to actually do anything. On a serious note, I worked in research and education for nearly a decade. The real question isn't whether all the staff actually work (I was staff myself!), they do. It's whether or not that work actually aligns with the mission of a university. IMO, this is research and _education_, but that's an unpopular opinion. Hence the poor return on investment so many graduates are seeing.