Why catching alpha in the US feels like chasing unicorns

Most debates on active vs passive investing very quickly land on American soil, with parallels drawn or inferences made to conclude that Indian active managers will also find it hard to generate alpha since American managers have struggled over time. While I agree America is the mecca of finance and the investing world, I don't think it's that far behind in terms of being the Kashi of marketing, either. We are always told that American public equity managers struggle to deliver alpha because markets are efficient and institutionalised. What we are not told is that while markets are institutionalised, institutions put two-thirds of their money into alternate investments like venture capital funds, private equity growth funds, buyout funds, cross-over funds, etc., and not into public markets where listed equity stocks are traded. In the last 25 years, the number of listed stocks in US markets has declined from over 7,000 to just around 4,000. Imagine if you are a fund manager for listed equity funds and what you have seen happening to your playfield. Over the years, your corpus has grown manifold, but your investment universe would have shrunk to nearly half, and what is left for you to generate alpha from would be predominant