[ptero]

This is a very interesting point, thank you!

I wonder though if another issue is at play: in the past both well-informed and random folks would mostly have "swayable" opinions (mostly certain, but leave room for a doubt; thus open to arguments and possibly a change of opinion), currently most opinions seem to have a religious hardness to them. This makes science less influential -- people tend to put a lot of spin on key findings to avoid changing their views.

This is judging by newspapers and magazines of 50 years ago and talking to older generations; not sure how objective this is.