Academic circles had long recognized that regulatory agencies were often "captured" by a regulated industry. The public would become aroused by the revelation of an abuse in a certain industry and a regulatory agency would be created, staffed initially by people responsive to the public interest, or at least highly critical of the industry. But eventually, public attention would turn to other problems, and only the regulated industry itself would maintain an interest in who was appointed to the agency and what decisions it rendered. In the long run, people sympathetic to the regulated industry would be appointed to the regulatory agency, and rulings would be made in the interest of the industry rather than in the interest of the public.