If you or I get fired from a software job, it's 2-3 months to find another one. A fired academic is toast. We have more month-by-month job loss risks but they have long-term career risks. One hit on your reputation and you're done as a professor. So, they face a different set of problems.

Academia didn't kill him singularly but I'm sure that it was a contributing factor. Was it murder? No. Wrongful death? Yes.