I like to believe the are a lot more smart tradesmen then the alternative. I see the bridges, buildings, machines, pipelines through the harshest of environments, ships, and aircraft and don't believe for a minute they were build by anything less than highly skilled people. From the folks that plan and design, to those that clear the land, to those that place the forms for the concrete foundations, to the folks that put up the structures, and those that install the workings, it takes a whole lot of skill and acquired knowledge to build the society that is what it is.
I don't disagree that there may be a few boneheads, but even they have families to support and most of them are willing to pull their share of the load in what ever capacity they can. Everyone plays some part in the equation of life and we all gravitate to what we do best, it may be as an engineer, a pipe welder, a mechanic, and yes, even the politician has a part to play.
So who's smarter or more highly skilled? It really doesn't matter.
What's more powerful, a drop of water or a river? The river after all is only powerful if all the drops of water work together.
Best regards - Al