I think news/media has some of the blame too. Science reporting in general is atrocious, journalists and editors are constantly misrepresenting and exaggerating the actual claims of scientists. I wish I had a nickel for every "Scientists invent new battery 10000x better than lithium" headline I've read. Eventually people become generally skeptical of these claims and skeptical of the scientists themselves even though the scientists never made the sensational claims misleadingly attributed to them by the media.

It's a horrible fusion of the 'telephone game' and the boy who cried wolf.