My own experience with 'academics' has I'm afraid given me rather a jaundiced view. I can only speak about this country (Eire), but the ones I have met have been aloof, dismissive, and in one or two instances downright obstructive. Based on 10 years experience I have yet to meet one prepared to give 'amateurs' (a term I use through gritted teeth) a fair hearing.
It seems that most are interested solely in their own careers and pension prospects, and have an eye firmly on the next tranche of funding for their own projects. This of course is human nature, but it excludes much that is relevant.
There are many intelligent people out there who were not able to benefit from higher education, who (and I do not include myself among them) had circumstances been different, could well have gone on to eclipse the careers of those who were more fortunate.
Personally I have learnt an enormous amount from all walks of academia, as have we all. But the possesion of an expensive piece of paper from a university does not confer automatic intellectual superiority upon anyone.
I regard the guy who fixes my car as an absolute genius, without whom both me and the academics would be well stuck. Not everything in life requires a university degree, and I would list the ability to see and reason, one of the mainstays of archaeology, as one of them.