Back up a step. Your first sentence reveals that what they really prize is credentials (or apparent credentials) in order to hold positions of influence. Neither knowledge nor wisdom is important to them - only power.
What my examples were trying to show was (supposed) superior knowledge, with credentials being evidence of that.
If credentials were the only consideration, then Bush couldn’t be an ‘idiot’ since he graduated from Yale.
I do understand what you are getting at though.