I don't think it's a "convenient for the sake of gaining/maintaining power". I think we're in the middle of a political realignment, and the new primary divide

I don't think it's a "convenient for the sake of gaining/maintaining power". I think we're in the middle of a political realignment, and the new primary divide comes down to how much you "trust" the individual to make good decisions. That was the divide with Covid, and it's kind of the divide for ideas and social media. The left is now represented by the highly educated professional class who view experts as the only ones capable of making good decisions for individuals and the group in aggregate. The right is sticking to the old ideals of individuals making decisions for themselves, even if those decisions might be considered "wrong" by a set of generally accepted criteria. They distrust the motivations of experts.