That's the influence of modernism, which was big at that time. Very much into rule by experts who applied precise, rational judgments to help or manage society.

That's the influence of modernism, which was big at that time. Very much into rule by experts who applied precise, rational judgments to help or manage society. SF is still the last bastion of modernism especially in hard SF, but I think the Vietnam war was the death knell for the idea of it in culture, and the New Wave in SF for it in SF.