intelligentsia (spec. well-educated, learned, or elite group of intellectuals, as a class): clerisy

[This word is sometimes used sarcastically or derisively to refer to a group of such people who think that they may be better or smarter than others.]  The problem with Mr. Biden’s advisory committee is that its members are part of the conformist Covid clerisy who think that lockdowns dictated from on high are good for the little people. (Author not given, “Biden’s Lockdown Lobby,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/13/2020.)