Scientist here.

1. It's always been like this. Always. You can see great good, fantastic good, exemplars of true humanity--but science has only relatively recently had eugenics become publicly unacceptable. Privately, it's still in, VERY much so. Is any of it rational? Does any of it make the slightest degree of sense? Nope.

2. No one is at the helm. Maybe the people who give the money, to a degree. But there's no one here to turn this ship around.