Yes, there has been a shift from basic towards applied science. The innovative scientists who are out there are basically trying to find ways to cope with this by squeezing in as much fundamental science...as part of their basic sciences.
As part of this, I perhaps work in a fortunate world right now, where the project I'm on, the ocean tracking network, is developing Canadian technologies—i.e., there are products we are selling globally that are magnifying the investments we're putting into our research by a factor of probably ten for every time we do things, while also generating a lot of really fundamental knowledge that has applied implications to it as well. Somehow we've managed to fuse all of that into place.
That's not to say that I do not believe in the fundamental research. I believe very strongly in it. It's where the great new ideas—the RIMs, and even the basic technology we're using as part of the supply network, the ocean tracking network, the sonic telemetry equipment—came from. So we have to keep that going.