The sad thing is that the huge consensus was really a lie to begin with. At the time, they could have gotten a reasonably good number straight up. They didn't have to fudge the question and the pool of "scientists", but they did anyway and all the believers ran with it.
Never mind that the idea of consensus and agreement is sort of the anti-thesis of the scientific method. If your data and conclusions are good, why the need for evasion and why try to shut down debate?