"Sputnik was not solved by throwing money at it..."
Oh, but it was. I can't tell you how many people got their science and engineering training thanks to "research assistantships" and "teachg assistantships" but it's a very big number and it includes me.
Nowadays we have practically no funds going to advanced education. Fewer and fewer students can make it though college in 4 years because of the work requirements associated with student loans. Then they face enormous grad school costs and are in competition with foreign students whose governments, in many cases, are paying theor way,
See my tagline