Maybe we should consult the person who is the expert on experts , wait a minute , that person doesn't exist .

I always found that I gained the most knowledge from the professors that actually had experience in applying their degree in the " working world " rather than those that just sat in the faculty lounge and discussed various theories .

I think the distrust in today's world of many " so called experts " ( no matter the credentials ) comes from the unusual high occurance of the many experts who practice blurring the line between theory and fact . It's seems there is becoming a more common practice among many experts of any field to arrive at a consensus about a particular theory and then profess it to be fact just becuase they agree .

A few examples of why there may be a growing distrust of the experts of any field is in the way they present their theories or at least the way the media presents them - coffee is bad for you , coffee is good for you - eggs are bad for you , eggs are good for you - on and on it goes , it doesn't matter which topic or which field of expertise , too many experts want to rush to embrace a theory as fact , there lies the distrust .

There was a time that all learned men believed the world to be flat based upon a theory therefore it was a consensus therefore it was fact .

Just food for thought , I'm not sure that anyone is an expert , there is always room to learn more . Sometimes the experts are right , somtiimes the experts are wrong . Just because someone comes from the academia world doesn't make them right , they don't have a monoply on truth , the truth always resides in facts not suppositions .