Are you sure of that?
The way I read history, there has never been much distance between the two...hemlock and excommunication come to mind.
More recently, eugenics and the master race, A-bombs and a Nuclear Iran, come to mind.
A lot of what we call science today grew out of individual efforts that went entirely against the political, and accepted 'scientific', grain of their day.
But, most 'science' in history was sponsored by either state or church and was directed closely, ultimately determined, by either or both.
(Conveniently described by "follow the money".)
Versus:
Take a look at the Rand (US Government) version of 21st century computing at post #3.
(And remember that the first modern computer came into being before 1860 and took a century to reach that level of conjecture.)
It would have kept computing safely in the hands of only the largest institutions and supported status quo.
It was blown out of the water by a couple of outsiders with entrepreneurial goals.