[roenxi]

> Is this a new trend of some kind, or has it just become more obvious to me lately?

It is a classic trend. Anyone writing a book or trying to reach a wide audience has to cater for the fact that the audience has none of the skills required to assess complex claims. Most of the readers aren't going to be good at maths, are not going to have a grasp on the nuances of human behaviour and incentives, struggle with science, don't read history, etc, etc.

What most people are good at is copying successful people. So it is extremely common for people with large audiences to converge to a "Here is an example of a famous person, here is what they did. Here is another famous person, they did the same thing" style.

[sanderjd]

Interesting insight!