You mention the Manhattan Project (govt) and GE (industry), and I feel like there are still a lot of similar non-academic research groups that run on more like a Compton model. For instance I worked at the Boston Fed, the CFPB, and the World Bank (as well as in academia) and they all have that flavor of working on a team toward a common goal, with some direction from above. We were also given some time purely for our own independent research.
You mention the Manhattan Project (govt) and GE (industry), and I feel like there are still a lot of similar non-academic research groups that run on more like a Compton model. For instance I worked at the Boston Fed, the CFPB, and the World Bank (as well as in academia) and they all have that flavor of working on a team toward a common goal, with some direction from above. We were also given some time purely for our own independent research.