I was explicitly told by a patent lawyer that the patent office only considers other patents as prior art. Science papers and textbooks don't count and they don

I was explicitly told by a patent lawyer that the patent office only considers other patents as prior art. Science papers and textbooks don't count and they don't look for prior work in them. The vast majority of software patents likely shouldn't be granted either because of prior art or because they are obvious to practitioners of the art. The boat to fix the system has long sailed, and there is little point in talking about reforming it under the new US regime.