The cause is pretty obvious: journalists and other humanities do not pay well. People are not willing to pay for the garbage modern journalists put out, so there is not much money in the field. The only people going into the field, therefore, are those who are independently rich (rich parents) and ideologically motivated (which further reduces the quality of modern journalism).

Journalism and the humanities can pay extremely well for insiders.

The humanities - especially law and some corners of academia - also have far more direct political leverage than tech does.

As a (former) lawyer, I wouldn’t clump together law and humanities for this purpose. Many law students and lawyers didn’t major in humanities subjects, and the earning power of lawyers is far greater than academics in the humanities.

Sounds like a problem with politicians as well, particularly beyond the local level.