Evolution's rise to respectability is a puzzle. The science is not much different from what it was some twenty years ago. Evolution doesn't have anything like a new space telescope with which to see more clearly. What is new is the extent to which selectionist thinking is extending its tendrils into every aspect of human life, from medicine to morality. The rise of this Darwinisation of all things human is, however, possibly more to do with the media than with science.
Human evolution is intrinsically sexy.
There is no culture without a creation myth and Darwinian evolution is ours. The biggest problem is that Darwinism is too often used polemically. Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin are unusual in being upfront about their Marxist inclinations. O. Wilson, the Ridleys, Steven Pinker, Jared Diamond and John Maynard Smith. This camp is usually concerned with telling you how amazing natural selection is and how we are all products of blind but deterministic forces acting on our genes.