This Nature piece is basically describing me. I was a tenured associate professor who left for several reasons, but one big one was a dramatic change in the university and department's culture, especially in their administrative and management values.
It's somewhat validating to see this phenomenon get attention in an outlet like Nature, but likely too little too late.
I did interview at a university in the UK before I left -- one well known to HN is my guess. My impression from discussions there is that the UK and EU has been insulated from many of the trends in the US, but at least in the UK, there has been a shift to adopting some US practices. There are rational reasons for this but my impression was that it was already creating some of the same problems as in the US. In general, my impression is that the US and UK academic sectors are starting to resemble one another much more than was the case historically.
I've gone back and forth about whether or not leaving was the right decision. For a long time I didn't regret it at all, but now I often wonder if staying was the right choice despite all the problems. It's become distant enough in time I now have difficulty remembering everything though, so it's easy to remember certain feelings and thoughts more than others.
The US university system is often held up as one of civilization's great achievements. However, to me the system is fundamentally broken. I often can't discern if that's just my sour grapes opinion, or if the US university system is somehow riding the coattails of previous decades. I'm partially saying this cathartically, but partly because I worry about the rest of the world seeing the current US academic system as something to emulate, as opposed to what it was 50 years ago.
Everything you're saying is exactly right on the money in my opinion, though. Especially about marketisation. The problem with marketisation as applied to academics, I think, is that it mistakes short-term market metrics with long-term real value.
My sense in discussing things with colleagues is that a lot of this is location-specific. That is, there are enormous pressures in academics right now, and a lot of someone's experience depends on having an environment that is supportive and constructive. If you end up someplace fundamentally dysfunctional or abusive, it's decimating to your ability to function. Conversely, if you end up someplace where there are at least some reasonable individuals at the helm, with checks and balances, and an environment of looking to help each other succeed, a lot of the problems can be mitigated. I think that could be said of almost any vocation, but in academics it's especially important because there's so few degrees of freedom.