Comment by Peteragain

I do feel this is a case of Americans believing their own propaganda. What the US does well is efficiency. The problem is, capitalism has pushed the time to ROI (return on investment) to get shorter. 5 years is what venture capitalists were working on. At one point there was status for a corporation to have a research lab of quality - in the same way as corporations had glorious architecture for their headquarters, Bell labs was about status. These research labs provided a safe space for curiosity driven scientists. In the interests of efficiency (and because it no longer had kudos) the labs were abandoned and - in a classic US way - it was decided the State should do the science. The trouble now is that the Universities are thinking about their ROI. Curiosity driven science has no home at the moment.