My major concern (aside from some of the facts being wrong) about the articles like this specific one in the washingtonpost is this…It is a across the board criticism of the academia.
There is a major difference between the value of a PhD in applied physics, engineering, or many life science areas versus humanities. Across the board criticisms confuse and unnecessarily discourage potential students. In 2013, humanities and social science PhDs represented only ~27% of all PhDs earned. This is down from ~31% in 1983…and probably down from more than that is you go back 40 years into the 1970s.
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/2013/data/tab12.pdf
Why do people insist on giving a horror story about a humanities PhD career in an effort to represent the life of all grad students and all professionals in academia?