Led by a few and followed by a huge number because that's where the money is. The few are people like Hansen who adjusted temperatures to artificially cool the past by ignoring urbanization but "correcting" various imaginary warming biases (see recent articles at WUWT).
Another leader is Trenberth, who while a competent scientist in his field, shows pure biased ignorance anytime he talks about any topic a little bit beyond his speciality (weather and climate dynamics). It's led by Mann who took tree rings and incompetent statistics to a new level. Eventually a lot of followers corrected his sloppy work, but the hockey stick remains ingrained in the political landscape.
The leaders are generally arrogant statists and the followers are syncophants. Science takes a back seat to political correctness.
I shouldn’t say “scientists”. I should say “people who control the grant money and the university admissions programs”.
If you want a career, if you want research funded, you MUST kowtow to the AGW religion. The High Priests of AGW control it all: the publications, the grants, the university research programs, the university department admissions systems.