Professor Bruce Fleming has some observations and thoughts over at The Chronicle of Higher Education;

Should we keep the academies? Maybe there's a place for them, if we can eliminate their worst flaws. The academies attract a certain type of student: hard-charging, military-oriented, with expectations of both physical and mental challenges. But the academies squander that rich resource. If we want to preserve the academies, and can accept the fact that they don't produce better officers than the cheaper routes of ROTC and Officer Candidate School, it should be possible to find a serviceable hull of a military educational institution under all the barnacles.

American exceptionalism, or failure to adapt?

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Incidentally, The Chronicle of Higher Education is ever a good lecture.