Can't We Think for Ourselves?

It seems to me, reading the news, that many of us Americans no longer think for ourselves. I mean, there is just so much stupidity that you read coming from the mouths of elected people that I can only believe it is so because they've learned that we've learned to follow the leader. It is as if we've decided that anything the most important person says is true, so important people have learned that they can say anything. We know, now, that the President was given intelligence summaries that described Usama Bin Laden's (UBL's) plan to hijack airplanes and attack U.S. targets. While we know that problems exist between the FBI and the intelligence agencies, how is it that we believe that 100% of the fault lies with them and no responsibility acrues to civilian leaders elected to manage them?