Everybody's attacking this but when have graduate school programs ever been responsive to the job market? They're constantly minting more PhDs, MBAs, and LLBs than the professions can absorb; even MDs have begun to find it hard to get a good return on their investments. Maybe getting out of that business is the responsible thing to do?

Yes - that's how the markets are supposed to work. It is the student's responsibility to plan their own lives - and the job market should be part of that. It is not the institution's responsibility to "correctly" govern the life trajectories of their applicants.

If you, dear xhevahir, wanted to buy a math phd attempt and had the chops, you could self-fund the training, courses, and examinations of a Math PhD, and it'd be up to your own abilities to finish.

But nobody, nowhere, would (should!) stop you because "the jobs" aren't there. You could do it because you can find the money to do it.

Asking universities to set their intake numbers according to the perceived demand 5+ years down the road (let alone the coursework + specialization of those PhDs)? Madness - they'd effectively be planning the whole economy at that point.