And that lack of trust will likely make science worse. The number one issue in the academia is the lack of (public) funding. There are far more people trying t

And that lack of trust will likely make science worse. The number one issue in the academia is the lack of (public) funding. There are far more people trying to make a career in academic research than funding to enable that. When there is a lot of competition for scarce resources, people who are good at politics and gaming the metrics have an advantage. And if the resources become even scarcer due to the lack of public trust, the advantage will grow larger.