Most believed that the oil companies, OPEC and the federal government were powerful, monopolistic and irresponsible, and they suspected that the shortages were being manipulated by the energy companies in order to enrich themselves at the public's expense, with the full compliance of the government. The events of 1979, however, made the vulnerability and precariousness of the country's energy situation unmistakable to almost all Americans. As Stobaugh and Yergin (20) have shown, twenty years of anticipated change were dramatically telescoped into fewer than that many months: From $12-13 per barrel in late 1978, oil prices had risen to the $30-35 range, a level that many 1978 predictions had not anticipated until the year 2000. And political threats to the world's oil supply that had been discussed as potentially serious 5 or 10 years in the future had become visibly critical in 1979 alone. It was a fateful 18 months (20, p. 563). By August of 1979, even before the taking of American hostages in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 73% of the public were prepared to agree with the view, “The energy crisis is real, and is a clear and present danger to the country” (21). The Distrust of Institutional Leadership Reflected in the length of time that it took Americans to reach that conclusion was the public's pervasive distrust of those in charge of the major institutions of society. The decline of confidence in government was swift, sharp, and all-encompassing: —In 1964, a 69% majority of Americans had faith in the minimal competence of government officials (“They know what they are doing.”); by 1978, the number who held this view had dropped to 40% (13). —The belief that, “The government can be trusted to do what is right all or most of the time,” was held by 40% of the public in 1976, by 35% in 1977, and by 29% in 1979 (13). —Between 1964 and 1976, the proportion of Americans agreeing that, “The government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves,” rose from 29% to 66% (15). The declining confidence in government officials was more than matched by the public's distrust of the country's corporate leadership: —Between February 1966 and September 1981, those expressing “a great deal of confidence” in the people in charge of running “major companies” dropped by 39 points, from 55% to 16%. During the same period, confidence in the “executive branch of the federal government” dropped only 17 points, from 41% to 24%, and in “Congress” from 42% to 16% (22). —In 1976, 68% of the American people agreed that the federal government “is getting too powerful for the good of the country”; yet concern over the social and environmental costs of uncontrolled business activity was still greater than the fear of big government. In that same poll, 55% of the public believed that the government “should put a limit on the profit companies can make” (up from 28% in 1962); 55% said that the government should “require pollution control equipment in new cars”; and 63% favored governmental action to “require local businesses to meet job safety standards” (15). The New Skepticism about Science and Technology Given the plummeting confidence in leaders and experts, it was perhaps inevitable
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