I think universities have always been this way. It's ironic because they are places of learning and exploring. But only when the topics do not concern the running of the institution itself.
And the ever increasing stories (maybe unique to our times in how fast we can be informed and opine on such) we hear about academia whether they are about they increasing tuition prices for questionable returns (outside of the unquantifiable "great experience" [which seems like from my conversations with people, it is so great, that people don't even try to experience it again, just merely telling others that it was so seems to suffice]), toxic environments that lead to students and profs alike making blog posts and leaving for other opportunities that pop up on hn, or students or profs having to erect time old facades also littered in pamphlets to high schools across the world in response to such events (don't forget they also include how well their best sports team did with a full page layout of their stars and the newest buildings on campus), they don't seem to do themselves any more favors (which makes me have a laugh from time to time to see that MOOC's seem to be trying to live up to hollowed shell of university existence, but at a lower price point, with information that can more or less has been able to be found online for years [It's amazing to type into ddg on some obscure subject and find a mass of pdfs going into detail about such produced from some of those same universities decades ago, maybe to the point it really isn't that amazing anymore since it has been this way for years]).