I grew up wanting to be a Nuclear Physicist or Engineer since I was 6 or 7. I would read about UC Berkeley, and how at least 6 of the elements on the periodic table bear names from that college.
I spent my whole school life working to get into Berkeley. By the time 1984 had come around, the school was so bad off down the liberal sluce that it had BARELY retained its engineering accreditations. I had received the NROTC scholarship to go the previous year, and ended up going to USCGA instead.
That is a book that won't ever be written: The rise and fall of the California University System.
I worked around an "engineer" who graduated from UC Berserkley. Nothing but political agenda. Cheered for the tanks in Tien An Mein Square. Note that I said worked around, as in the presence of, instead of with. I could thus see why UC Berserkley nearly lost its engineering accreditations.
No less than Robert A. Heinlein provided a critique of the decline of the U of C system in his book Expanded Universe, which was written sometime between 1976 and 1980.