“Indirect costs” were accepted on the theory that this would be used to create job security for professors who did useful work but were not able to secure direct funding.

Spoiler alert: That job security doesn’t exist anymore. A professor who isn’t winning grants, even if tenured, is functionally dead. Research doesn’t matter except as PR and teaching definitely doesn’t matter; the ability to raise grants is the singular determinant of an academic’s career.

Consequently, most academics despise university overhead because it reduces the number of grants to go around and they get nothing for it.

That does not, of course, mean they support Trump or Musk. Most do not.