The thing that killed RAND was government oversight and neoliberalism. These days its not possible to innovate something like switched ethernet (which RAND had

The thing that killed RAND was government oversight and neoliberalism. These days its not possible to innovate something like switched ethernet (which RAND had a hand in) unless you submit bids from forty GSA vendors and hold fifty meetings on which third party implementation consultants you need to hire for the work neoliberalism insists you not do anymore as a corporation because outsource culture is king. wrap it all up in a mountain of project managers and "best practices" because youre too chicken-shit to do anything that 200 other companies dont do, and viola. the punishment for failure FAR outweighs the reward for any breakthrough you think you can achieve. youre not a thinktank anymore youre just a consulting firm with a particularly attractive media spend.