I'm not I'd like to get on either side of this argument, but I'd like to point out a steady decline in systems and operating systems (both research and teaching

I'm not I'd like to get on either side of this argument, but I'd like to point out a steady decline in systems and operating systems (both research and teaching) across the academic world. Rob Pike wrote a polemic touching on it, and he wasn't entirely off base. This isn't to say that they don't exist, but there are a wealth of examples demonstrating the transition of major progress in those fields to companies like Google and Amazon. For anecdotal examples, see GFS, MapReduce, and Dynamo; there are many unpublished/trade-secret examples that will take years to come out. Additionally, many schools have reduced their requirements for what exposure students should have to systems and OS: A Harvard CS concentrator, for example, is not required to take either the introductory systems or operating systems classes; he/she may opt to take a high-level mobile programming class instead. Indeed, the operating systems and distributed systems courses are taught every other year, further reducing enrollment. The last time CS 161 (intro OS) was taught, there were only 23 students. 25 in CS 153 (Compilers). This is a stark contrast to the 100-200 students who took other upper-level CS classes (189 in mobile, for example). While I will not contest the value of the formal CS education, I see some of the 'naive'(for lack of a better term) CS proliferating even there.