[josephg]

Do you have any evidence for this?

I suspect in the 60s and 70s science was (in the public imagination) wrapped up in a positive story of the future, full of space travel and prosperity for all. And now science is wrapped in a story (at least for some) of doom and gloom. Climate wars, or creeping authoritarian governments telling people what to think.

I suspect the experience of actual scientists, in labs trying things out, hasn’t changed anywhere near as much as the public’s stories of science have changed.