In effect the Jesuits were the first masters of modern advertising, emotional persuasion followed by a rationalistic process of confirming with the intellect what is already "known," that is, believed through emotion. Empirical science in the 19th century carved out a niche for "facts" and evidence based theory as opposed to emotion based faith in which evidence is irrelevant. Empiricism did OK where a small elite ran society, and valued education as a means to better govern society. Evidence based knowledge is now being beaten down in a society where a small ruling elite values business success and engineering over the pursuit of evidence based knowledge. The business elite, under the emotional rubric of being job creators or job protectors, can easily win the populists to their cause. Being elitely educated today means earning a professional degree, especially the MBA, but also any degree leading to a  field (like medicine) that can be monetarized and profits maximized.