It seems like Google is de-ranking independent websites, rather than actually analyzing whether a website provides good information or not.
I'm not sure that this is happening intentionally - it's probably way more difficult to figure out a way to automate a "quality of information" rating, rather than just prioritizing websites for companies that make lots of money.
However, this has the unintended effect of narrowing the overton window for "acceptable" opinions. I've found that it's really difficult to find good results for niche topics on Google nowadays.
This is almost certainly what happened. Search YouTube for any political subject and you will only see videos from channels with a check. It’s just a dumb hard boost, on a hand selected list of authoritative channels.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Google change is essentially the same, just without the visible check marks.
I'm not sure that this is happening intentionally - it's probably way more difficult to figure out a way to automate a "quality of information" rating, rather than just prioritizing websites for companies that make lots of money.
However, this has the unintended effect of narrowing the overton window for "acceptable" opinions. I've found that it's really difficult to find good results for niche topics on Google nowadays.