whats it due to then in your opinion?
As someone working at a university, it's definitely not the dominant ideology amongst the decision makers. Maybe in some humanities departments, but not in the rest of the university, and especially not in the administration.
Science had a religious like following, doctors were considered infallible, and so on
The fact that it is a well established notion that pharmaceutical companies buy studies is a new phenomena (relatively to before post modernism set in)
The extreme manifestations is anti-vax, and it’s usually not due to them coming out of a humanities department
That's not what happened, and they discredited themselves. Guess what. The public does know what the scientific method is, and they smelled a rat.
Why should we trust scientists if they violate their own principles?
> continuous attacks
Yeah. These are often warranted. Scientists MUST be held to a higher standard because (unless they're funded by HHMI) they're using the public purse.
> diminishing returns
That's a real thing. It's not supposed.