The academic whose career prospects depend on publications will find it easier to write a critical social analysis which is more publishable than a sober, common sense, realistic evaluation. Reality, common sense and evaluation are boring. Criticism is interesting and very much in the intellectual vogue at present. The pressure groups advocating regulatory government action know that if legislation is enacted as a consequence of lobbying, they may be appointed to implement the act. Business and other pressure groups benefit in a similar way from legislation which is enacted consequent to lobbying.
Some people have feelings of conscience about the wealth and privilege they enjoy.
It is much easier to ask the State to act or to focus on a particular cause such as land rights for the aborigines than to do something practical which involves sacrifice of personal wealth. A town person who asks for land rights for aborigines will not have to make any sacrifices, that will fall on a corporation or a country person. A person who exalts customary aboriginal life has no intention of donning a loin cloth, hunting with a spear or subjecting himself to aboriginal customs. A very small part of purported expenditure on aboriginal welfare goes to the aborigines themselves, the balance being creamed off by the bureaucrats and the activists. This feeling of false guilt is a powerful factor among the affluent who have embraced socialism.