It's easy in America. As soon as your industry becomes big enough you can afford to petition (lobby) the government to write regulations that favor your busines in your industry.
Fortunately any American can petition their government. Collectively we could hire our own lobbyist to write better laws (and regulations).
Sure in the short term dishonesty might work for a scientist but long term? Legacy after death? I'm not so sure on that.
Surely the conditions for being a professional academic are much more favorable than times in the past. (By virtue only that University is more accessible to more people today than any other time)
Just because we see flaws today doesn't mean that those flaws can not be 'fixed'.
(Nor that we won't discover new flaws and new fixes: engineering is an interative process).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_the_United_...