I believe the basic problem is that the curricula in our K-12 schools do not put a major emphasis on critical thinking or how the scientific method works, so people will accept what the “experts” claim when those claims have not been tested. Science was put on a pedestal during the competition between the US and the USSR, and the result has been an overemphasis on “publish or perish” and a flood of research papers with little value and no confirming follow-up. Even worse is the politicization infecting climate research and other fields, exemplified by the IPCC’s periodic prophecies of doom.
“No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.” ~ Richard P. Feynman