The main reason academic papers exist right now is simply because academics need to publish papers, in ever larger quantities. It's publish or perish, and it ge

The main reason academic papers exist right now is simply because academics need to publish papers, in ever larger quantities. It's publish or perish, and it gets a little bit worse every year. The peer review system is a bit of a farce. Sometimes it works out, but there are loads of papers that get published simply because the author is well known. Papers used to be better. At least in my field, the quality really dropped off in the mid to late 00's. Most of the very best papers that I've read---at least, in terms of writing---were written in the 90's or earlier. I think the increased pressure to publish coupled with people being constantly distracted by computers and other forms of media are to blame. Depending on what your interest is, you may be better served by a textbook. Or if it's something very specific, just contacting someone by email and trying to have a chat with them. That said, most of the techno-improvements you suggest (clickable links, interactive plots, etc) are basically worthless. Good writing and good presentation can be accomplished on a typewriter with hand-drawn plots. Communicating technical ideas well requires the author to think carefully about how they'll present their thoughts, which gets skipped over in most cases.