It's a good point, but, as others have pointed out, I don't think it's a reversion to centralization so much as a more manifest expression of a truth that was there already. Who, realistically, can possibly do their own research on virtually any topic in modern life? Such "research" amounts, almost invariably, to appeals to some social authority. Which sounds bad, but there's really no other solution. The meta-skill of figuring out who to trust is an exercise in doing your own research. But it's a weaker exercise than people imply with their chest-thumping.

I think you're right, at the time of this writing. I think you will be extremely wrong before the year is out. The fact that the bullshit asymmetry principle has just blown up by several orders of magnitude should fill us all with fresh horror and philosophical unease; but I don't know what more productive action it should prompt.