The average time to degree is too long, and it’s definitely inflated by the competition. Back in the day, new PhD graduates weren’t expected to have a publication or a book in order to get a tenure-track job. Nowadays, science PhDs are expected to have several publications before getting a job, and humanities PhDs often have to have a book under contract and another viable project underway. Science PhDs also have shorter times to degree, but often have to do 1-3 postdocs after graduate school to be competitive for university jobs. With grants being more difficult to get, science and social science PhDs are also increasingly expected to come in with grant-writing experience and ideally a grant in hand.
It’s ridiculous. The expectations are too high. Search committees are expecting to plop a fully formed professor in the slot rather than do some career develop and individual mentoring.
But…he didn’t actually suggest any ways to fix it in the article. Instead, the article was an advertising piece for his book. I also expected him to outline a few more problems with the system. Times to degree and the attrition rate aren’t problems with the system - they are symptoms of problems with the system.