Roger Pielke Jr has a must-read post on the politicisation of science, inspired by an editorial in Nature by Dan Sarewitz.
In a 2009 paper I documented that Science magazine published 40 editorials critical of the Bush Administration during its 2 terms, and only 1 such critique of the Clinton Administration's previous 2 terms (here in PDF). I have just updated this analysis through the first term of the Obama Administration, and found no editorials critical of the Obama Administration. Instead, there were editorials with the following titles:
I think the UK is probably lagging behind the US here somewhat, although only to the extent that science's role as subcommittee of the Fabian Society is not publicly acknowledged to the same extent as it is over the pond.