NASA Scales Back ISS Yet Again

I understand the shuttle and International Space Station were designed with each other in mind: The shuttle was only good for orbital maneuvers, and the station needed a heavy lifting, large capacity cargo vessel in order to ferry its parts to orbit.
But now that the shuttle is being retired do we need to hack the ISS to pieces? The station, now more than ever, needs to be a complete entity, it needs to be treated like the permanent piece of scientific hardware it is. A scientific platform for all sorts of research, the station has the potential to provide knowledge crucial to further development of our future Space-based infrastructure. Even if all it ever does it demonstrate technologies for living in orbit---how to make better meals, have better personal hygiene, create artificial gravity, develop protective shielding, all these things could be derived from research conducted aboard ISS.
Let's not treat it like a piece of Space junk. Instead, why not develop different size pieces that can fit the current structure, and be carried by the heavy-lifting cargo CEV NASA is developing.
Makes sense to me.