This myth of Randi as some sort of icon to skeptical inquiry was largely made by the media of the time. He's a magician.

He scared the shit out of some televangelists using their own tactics, and that earns him my profound respect.

Healthy skepticism though is not a personality game. It requires the society to work towards it. Journalists, scientists, politicians, healthcare, education. One person cannot build it, one person cannot tear it down.

If there is anything that could be classified as a blow to skepticism, that thing happened very recently (one or two decades), and it affected those aforementioned groups of society.