Maybe we have a more serious merit crisis due to diversity hiring on the basis of sex and race.
That has certainly tainted college/university lie over the last 50 years. The “political desire” to rapidly increase the women & “minorities” (Asians don’t count as a minority!) in the faculty lounges (particularly here!) and student body has done enormous damage. Letting the numbers increase in real academic disciplines to whatever was a “natural level” was just too much to ask for.