This is something I have noticed and that frustrates me a great deal. Science is treated as received wisdom handed down by the authorities.
I have made great efforts to avoid that in my children's education. A hint for people in the UK - look at science GCSEs other than the usual physics, chemistry biology trio. My daughter did astronomy and it was far better as it had a lot of explanation of historical cosmology and what the evidence has been for various theories.
this makes sense as schools mostly exist just to create an educated workforce to can run the machine. Even science is big business these days, just keep cranking out papers of dubious value and reproducibility
I think what the pandemic showed was that you can "follow the science" and do whatever you want, because when scientists disagree you pick the one who says what you want. The same for lots of things - UK drug policy (which involved things like firing a scientific advisor for giving the wrong advice), what to do about global warming, etc.
The whole idea of science as handed down by authority also helps people like creationists and conspiracy theorists because if its just a matter of authority then you can choose a different authority.
I have made great efforts to avoid that in my children's education. A hint for people in the UK - look at science GCSEs other than the usual physics, chemistry biology trio. My daughter did astronomy and it was far better as it had a lot of explanation of historical cosmology and what the evidence has been for various theories.