Powell's clarion call for the eradication of the American Left on campus and throughout society is credited with "inspiring the founding of many conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute," according to the PBS website on the Supreme Court that republishes the memo.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/21/the-corporatization-of-the-american-university/
I think this answers the question of how cultural changes are tied into capital and the death of a creative life.The attack has been going on for a long time. Early on it was arts and humanities that were taking the big hits.
About the only reason there were good foreign language depts at UCB was the undergraduate requirement for two years of a foreign language.
CG