<p>1) Doom & Gloom sells papers. 2) DC-based media tends to overly focus on what the Federal government is doing (funding trends are going to be DOWN for the forseeable future) 3) DC-based media tends to be ignorant about anything happening outside the Beltway until it has an effect locally. 4) “Asia is going to whip our tuchus”/“eat our lunch” has been a theme to gain support for the Federal program of the day for decades (see Japan Inc. & 1980s). </p>
<p>As an example, the current boom in domestic natural gas & oil production resulted from industry R&D in production technology that was beneath the media’s attention because no big government program was involved.</p>