These ivy towered academics are continually being quoted by the astute members of the 4th estate as to the standard reasons for the demise of our economy. The reason they are off so much is that they can't say the E word. We seem to have forgotten that manufactured goods don't grow on trees. They are designed by Engineers, the manufacturing technology is done by Engineers and the distribution means and software is implemented by Engineers. In the economic pecking order this fact is completely ignored.
Engineers are the only engine of our industries a fact blatantly ignored by the establishment.
The quality of our products have been deteriorating steadily simply because our best brains go into other fields of endeavor, namely ,medicine, law and business. We have seen a steady erosion of American brainpower leave the engineering business for greener pastures. This has had a direct impact on our manufactured products on the average. We simply design and manufacture inferior products because we have inferior people designing them today than twenty years ago. Exploited people also care less about innovation.