My hunch from reading these comments is that the doctors tend to be experienced and pragmatic, and their experience teaches them what tests matter and when. The problem with this though is they start to believe those tests are useless when they might not be.
It becomes more complicated when you consider doctors have limited time and resources and cannot spend too much time with any single patient, at least the way the US healthcare system is designed. I believe this is a large contributing factor for why they behave the way they do - it's how the system is designed. And it's why I have all but given up on doctors even trying to help me with my bizarre symptoms, where I have been accused of lying multiple times.
Sympathies -- I've had some experience of that sort too. I'd have more sympathy with the doctors' side (it is a very difficult position) if they weren't set up as gatekeepers.
It becomes more complicated when you consider doctors have limited time and resources and cannot spend too much time with any single patient, at least the way the US healthcare system is designed. I believe this is a large contributing factor for why they behave the way they do - it's how the system is designed. And it's why I have all but given up on doctors even trying to help me with my bizarre symptoms, where I have been accused of lying multiple times.