I am not impartial enough to comment on the first part. But if he thinks that university research is "top-down directed", he must not know much about universities.
My guess is he isn't saying no original thought and research originates there, but was probably cordoning off some portion of the ivory tower influence from research grants, tenure, etc..
I was reading the story of Emmy Noether and thought of the pseudonym for the Monero cryptographer.
But Göttingen had no faculty posts for women. Hilbert fought for her. "After all," he said angrily, "the [faculty] is not a bath house!" She was finally put on an irregular appointment at a modest salary in 1922 -- when she was 40.