This reminds me of the Renaissance art and how it was produced. In the early period, there were so few artists someone could get a job by showing up. Near the middle, so many people were artists they had a lottery just to be an apprentice, and most of the big names had others complete their paintings. There was a long t of competition to get sponsorship, especially by the big names so politics were used to show praise to these rich families. Then near the end, the money started to dry up, and artists became field workers to pay the bills. Getting into schools was very hard and even then, it didn't amount to much. By this time art and politics was unanimous, and treated that way even today.

We are doing that with science. In the 40's-60's anyone could be a scientist because we had so much need and so few scientists. My grandfather went from backwoods to nuclear chemist. If you could repeat things like experiments and testing, you were in. I can't get an academic job because they're getting rid of those departments, and not teaching students how to get jobs outside of academia. The politics within it is also winning over research and understanding.