Many museum professionals either drink the kool aid that museums are SO valuable, we have public duties, blah blah blah that they fear being mercenary / they want to preserve what little they've achieved because of the massive sunk cost to get into museum work https://twitter.com/magmidd/status/1301487019391098882

you sink 6-8 years to get a grad degree, another 5-10 to hit mid level and your salary is a joke compared to for profit work of the same level typically - of course there's gonna be defensive fear and retrenchment

What's different about now is that more and more people not only know this is bad, but are actively turning down conditions which make you aid this shitty system. No longer do we as individuals expect to wind up better than our parents, its a major, major shift