My own take on the thread topic is both "scale" and "satisfaction". The reason Science is so hard to grasp these days is mostly because of the scale of things, or volume of information to be contained.
I have used the pocket calculator example a few times, and I think it's a decent analogy here.
These days, pretty much anyone and their dog can make a pocket calculator if they have the time and the know-how (either trail and error, or the instruction booklet).
Twenty or so years ago, it might have taken an engineer with a degree to do the same, seeing as the technology was primitive, and we didn't know how to make it.
As I've already said: these days are much different. Anyone can do it, if they wanted to. However, making more complicated circuitry and/or computers require much more education and training. This is what I mean when I say "scale".
While this is related to the sciences behind technology, the general principle remains the same.
When I refer to "satisfaction", I mean that some people are happy with understanding *this* part of the whole. Some are, some aren't.
On can be satisfied with the simple explanation of why, say... there's gravity. Gravity is a force that is mostly oriented "down" from our viewpoint. This force comes from the planet Earth, and generally, the bigger something is, the great the gravity.
Simple enough, ja?
However, some people might not be happy with "it's because of the Earth", and want to know why the Earth does it. Then you have to explain it further (increasing the scale of scientific babble), until the person is satisfied with what they are told and understand.
Generally, it's easier to shy away from science, since you need to understand so much more these days, than what we used to. But, it all boils down to what we want to know, and how much we want to understand of that knowledge.
