I was reading an article  about trying to recruit people to study physics. It's not going as well as hoped, people are tending to move more towards carriers in say the computing industry earlier rather than later. I can understand this.

For me I think part of this is that we have lost some of the romance and indiana jones sprit of physics. Back in the day science was typically performed by very small teams or even individuals. 

Marie Curie worked with her husband for example. Faraday had is helps but was pretty much on his own. Einstein collaborated but always with small groups. Lots of papers were published by a single author.