The article on the history of national observatories makes for interesting reading. The current trend is for these facilities to devote their increasingly pressured budgets to their large telescopes at the expense of smaller ones that historically have been extremely productive per square meter of aperture.
Astronomers who are based at smaller institutions and who pursue modest (but still valuable) research goals are largely being shut out of the game. Few small departments or institutions have the resources or administrative commitment to join a private consortium that would give them access to only a small amount of telescope time each year. Societies and science thrive best under a system of democratic meritocracy in which both private and public support are available.
