> I suspect yes, because the poor research was simply not be being done. Science was not a career, there was no pressure to publish, it was the pastime of an elite few.

One of the critiques I hear about Academia these days, even in hard sciences, is that it is now significantly more dominated by the sons and daughters of elites (who don't have to take out loans and can afford unpaid research opportunities etc. etc.) So it might be on its way back to that.

N-rays (1903) would be a counter-example, but I can't speak as to the overall statistics of any scientific field that far back.