Yes! There's something seemingly insidious going on here. Remember we spoke about Baumol's cost disease (aka the Baumol effect) in relation to the increasing costs in the public history field a while back? I think this is one of the central causes that maybe deserves its own name.

Conditions were probably not much different fifty years ago, but the profession didn't then have the expertise to see it and the sector didn't make a priority of assessing the situation. And, of course, it's only been exacerbated by diversifying and proliferating collection priorities to reflect the recent idea of what should be collected and protected. Kind of like the Sorcerers' Apprentice scene in Fantasia.

Is this really a condition all it's own? If so, what to call it? The Fantasia Factor? The Apprentice Effect? Or maybe Scorcerer's Syndrome?

And more to the point: what should be done about it?