David Brin has been ranting on the same subject.
in fact he's mainly been focusing on the aftermath of Katrina. Where the commonality lies is that he sees a power grab by the "professional" castes in an attempt to protect their positions from the common person who, when allowed to do so, does a pretty good job of taking care of themselves in a crisis situation. Of course, this makes the professional caste look like a bunch of useless ninnies who get paid to make other people miserable, and so we can't have the common person taking care of themselves, no?
Hurt me if you must, but let the duckie go!