[IndianAstronaut]

When I started my bio PhD, people were looking at me in puzzlement when I started spending more time programming and doing math. Now that I am in the software industry, a lot of them are asking me how to get a job.

>From my point of view, research science was becoming a luxury/hobby profession of people whose spouses make a lot of money or who are independently wealthy.

Up through the 19th century, this was primarily the case. Of course back then there was a lot of low hanging fruit as compared to now.