My university was build around research, most of its research relied on federal grants. In my experience, research and whimsical development (that is work engineers have more freedom to think and build) requires excess cash, and that cash has only come from where the US federal govt has put money in (or indicated funding shift toward). And most of the smaller contractors are just chasing a check (a really big check) and hire/fire engineers to give them exactly that, whatever he can bid on the federal gov will fund.