Douglas Adams got philosophy right; the "answer" is in the question, written in the behavior of life itself. That question is Nature's question, "What will this new life form add to or subtract from its environment's future?" Before humans invented cities, any species that came up with negative net usefulness (or just bad luck) died off. Human philosophy is built on inventing new ways to assign an absolute value to our negative number result. The Answer isn't 42: it's -42. The question isn't "what is the meaning", but "what is humanity's contribution to its own future environment?"

You can add up all the art, bridges, atomic bombs and children's pillow forts, but the actual answer (unless philosophers take real responsibility) will continue to be "-42" (consumptionism).

The rest is just marketing. God is the marketing department for the town meeting, but philosophers are needed to connect the town meeting to real plans. God and artwork and donuts can get people to show up, engineers can build anything they are tasked with, but philosophers have to help people choose between more steeples or flood control.

You mention how philosophy departments are at the mercy of money, but money people need more guidance than just consumers' blind choice. The fail point of philosophy can be traced back to any place that a philosopher failed to shoot an economist, salesman or bully.