Stefan, thank you for your comment. Alas, stating the true state of affairs may be inflammatory – people actually care what happens to their science, and get understandably upset when it starts circling the drain. I know first hand of several colleagues in federal research agencies of good repute, who are currently desperately searching for jobs as they expect to get fired any day now. My own university will start letting researchers go, as it may experience federal research fund cuts of the order of $500M. And so on.
Note for instance
Science under attack! - Offtopic - Julia Programming Language