Article: It's Normal for Regulators to Get Captured 

From time to time, I note the effects of regulation of some area or other of science.

This is an excellent introduction to the problems associated with regulation.

The same kind of "regulatory capture" occurs in other parts of government. I have read for many years of the "revolving door" between the Foreign Service and the think tanks and foundations paid for by the Saudi Arabians. The Saudi's pay ex-civil servants very well, and that influences what they are willing to say before they retire.