According to [1] (easiest to just download the spreadsheet) the US defense budget for "Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation," adjusted for inflation, peaked in 2008-10 at about $80 billion and has been at a downward slide with 2015 estimated at $63 billion. The entire defense budget took a huge hit with the 2013 sequestration [2] and fell by $9 billion (over 10%) in a single year. NASA's budget in 1965-66 was more than 4% of the federal budget but now it's less than half a percent with its operations torn across dozens of Congressional districts and DARPA has only managed to avoid this bureaucratic creep because its structure is unique among federal agencies.
Combined with privatization that hasn't yielded any clear benefit, pork-barreling that cripple organizations, and general mismanagement, the falling budgets have probably had a very negative impact on US R&D capabilities, offset only slightly by modest increases in NSF and NIH grants for academia.
Combined with privatization that hasn't yielded any clear benefit, pork-barreling that cripple organizations, and general mismanagement, the falling budgets have probably had a very negative impact on US R&D capabilities, offset only slightly by modest increases in NSF and NIH grants for academia.
[1] https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleI...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_fiscal_cliff