Yeah this. In the UK we have a real problem with completely unearned authority given to people who went to prestigious private schools.
I've seen it a few times. Otherwise shrewd colleagues interpreting the combination of accent and manner learned in elite schools as a sign of intelligence. A technical test tends to pierce the veil.
> until very recently, it was basically impossible to sound articulate while being incompetent. We have to adjust.
My observation differs: for very likely centuries, we had/have these people who by their articulateness could "bullshit" in a lot of topics where their knowledge is very shallow. Only experts could recognize the difference (but "nobody" listened/listens to those); the mass of people (including a lot of those in power) fell/falls for these articulate pseudo-"experts".
By the existence of LLMs, a lot of people simply became aware of this centuries-old phenomenon (or to put it more colloquially: LLMs brought "articulate bullshit as a service" to the masses :-) ).
I've seen it a few times. Otherwise shrewd colleagues interpreting the combination of accent and manner learned in elite schools as a sign of intelligence. A technical test tends to pierce the veil.
LLMs give that same power to any written voice!