Comment 21 by djs56 :

I think that the US physics, and perhaps wider science, communities are starting to realise that they can't just expect to get the level of funding they previously did without further justification. Generally, and especially to politicians, that means demonstrating increased economic returns.

Its kind of ridiculous in the US we waste billions on "defense". Often continuing to fund weapons programs that even the Pentagon doesn't want yet people have to jump through hoops to get funding for basic research. Its hard to completely justify funding basic science like this because you never know where the next big idea will come from and there is so much interplay between different communities. So trying to show the kind of immediate causal connection (we funded X million dollars that created Y new industries) that are required for these kinds of cost benefit analyses are difficult to come up with.