This paper provides a detailed analysis of the change process of academic science. The change pressures currently visible in UK science have been conceptualised as the product of three interdependent dynamics: a shift towards neo‐liberal ideologies and discourses of government; a process of reconstitution of the relationship between government and science; and the resulting reshaping of science itself. Focusing on the universities and academic science, we argue that this process of transformation has adverse consequences the end result of which may be a loss of capacity within the science system to maintain knowledge bases.