By the time the idea of breeding and genetics caught on, the innovator Gregor Mendel was long dead, and it was up to scientists who realized he had discovered something important a generation later to do further research. Despite the fact that the human species had been conducting farming and breeding on a large scale for generations, it was less of a science than it was a practice that was largely ignored or taken for granted unless you were an especially perceptive person utilizing the practice.

In many ways, science can be the study of things that many people take for granted because they would rather not think of it, then otherwise.

That is the one thing about knowledge that I think Robert Jordan got right. The ones with the most powerful and esoteric knowledge frequently aren't in powerful positions. It was a toothless wilder that re-introduced the idea of a Well into the Westlands, random wilders have access to rare channeling feats because the Aes Sedai no longer practice them, and the strongest possible channelers are the ones who are off leading their lives in backwaters having no desire to be affiliated with the White Tower. The one Westlander who has some idea of the state of the world himself is currently in disguise as a random old gentleman.

Meanwhile the people in power and the decision makers often have to work with insufficient information and questionable motivations to make the big decisions.