I think that's sort of the point though. And even the "decent" salaries (whatever that means exactly, relative to industry) is arguably limited to a relatively small number of tenured faculty at a relatively small number of elite schools--concentrated in certain fields.

Don't get me wrong. Being a tenured professor, especially with an endowed chair, at an Ivy or equivalent, is a pretty good gig if you're cut out for it. But, in the scheme of things, there aren't a lot of those positions.