So much to say. I went through the whole academic cycle and moved to industry... about 15 years ago. I can't put it any other way than: the professors and PIs are abusing their employees. It has worked for some time because there were always enough people ultra-motivated to work in science for the prestige and other perks, but now, the economy is such that people can no longer do that (science job + family + mortgage = unhappy).

The right way to think about this is in terms of long-term politics and the success of nations. If you disincentivize national research, your country will fare worse than its competitors. For me, that's the US- if the US doesn't turn around the incentive systems for doing high quality academic research in the national interest, we will eventually be at an economic disadvantage to China.