There are definitely people winging it but that doesn't account for the engineers that designed your iPhone, airliners, rockets that are capable of autonomous landing. Scientists that designed and built mRNA vaccines that use your bodies own infrastructure to synthesis molecules at the target site, managed to replicate fusion ignition on the surface of earth, smashed atoms together at multiple TeV.
Sure. Not everyone in every field is smart but experts are a real thing and they know vastly more about their field than you do.
I think when you achieve mastery in some field then it becomes a lot easier to appreciate this.
Maybe that is part of the problem. The vast majority of people aren't being offered the opportunity to achieve mastery and thus they don't have this critical grounding.
Sure, there are people who have achieved mastery in their field and are very knowledgeable and experienced within their area of focus. My personal opinion is that fewer and fewer people are actually at that level. Even less likely that those people are in a position of influence. The decline of education quality, the instant gratification era brought on by the internet, nonstop sensationalism, politics and social issues being forced into every aspect of our lives. I lean towards experts being the unknown and unheard people, while the people who have a voice and power to influence something just played politics right, knew the right people, and kissed the right butts.
Sure. Not everyone in every field is smart but experts are a real thing and they know vastly more about their field than you do.
I think when you achieve mastery in some field then it becomes a lot easier to appreciate this.
Maybe that is part of the problem. The vast majority of people aren't being offered the opportunity to achieve mastery and thus they don't have this critical grounding.