I suspect there's a lot of people that end up pursuing research because they enjoy college and learning with the idea of seeking out a job sounding rather less enjoyable, and more education will just equal more $$$ in said job anyhow, right?

In the past this wasn't an issue because university was seen as optional, now in most places it's ostensibly required to obtain a sufficiently well paying job, and so much more of society ends up on a treadmill that they may not really want to hop off of.