> there's a deep strain of anti-expert feeling throughout, at least, the West at the moment.

Anti-intellectualism in the US goes back decades (if not centuries):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_Americ...

The first two US colonies were Jamestown (looking for El Dorado North; gold; riches) and Plymouth (religious society):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasyland:_How_America_Went_...

* https://www.kurtandersen.com/fantasyland

The magical thinking of those two are the seeds of US society today and all the fruits (good and bad) can probably be linked to the ideas of one of the two.