> The showing up at 10Am and leaving at 3 with a long lunch and working 20 hour work weeks.
Mostly this.
The conferences honestly aren't that much of a perk, relative to the pay differential, at least in STEM fields.
The "hot research asst" thing was common in the past but died down significantly with #MeToo (still a lot of egotistical creeps ofc).
But the amount of general laziness dressed up as busyness in academia is astounding. Most professors retire in place some time in their early to mid 30s.
The solution is to end higher ed carve-outs in federal grant awards. Let anyone qualified apply for and receive NSF funds. Stop tying tax dollars to university affiliation.