Personally I think the internet has created what I would call "group expertise". There is no reason to seek out a single expert anymore. Now you can post a thread and get several responses from all levels of experience (with a mixture of time based, hands on based, different views of how to, etc.)
It is like Wikipedia - everyone commenting and adding to come to the most collective "expert" answer.

From this the person requesting the knowledge can make a decision that fits their particular need or circumstance.

Hope this helps