Surely the trend is in the opposite direction. One of the reasons for high level institutions not keeping its best minds and losing them to industry is the lack of intellectual stimulation. The problems of pollution, exhaustion of resources, erosion of currency, lowering of values and standards remain on the horizon unsolved. Any successful effort so far made is in the direction of greater effort in the old direction that created the problem or in its opposite direction still in the same plane. So far no effort seems to have arisen that looks at these problems in their right perspective.
Human problems are within human ingenuity to solve.
As man is not faced with problems of others' creation, it is possible for him to solve the problems he has created. He must look at the origin, growth and its existence to understand a problem. A problem is best understood when man rises above it and looks down on it, from a wider perspective. Presently he is so much identified with the problem that he IS the problem. Fixing himself at the centre of it, he tries to solve it.