That seems unlikely in several ways - first off the controling humanity part as a whole has failed whenever it has been tried regardless of means.

Second the "scientific priesthood" tropes get it so backwards. A priesthood in the sense depends upon trust and secrets jealously guarded within. Instead they are anti-priests in that they try to promote and want to see understanding spread and progress to more advanced and nuanced areas.

Not to mention I have seen it most invocations as what seems a lot like psychological projection. Dogmatics encounter something science contradicts, no matter how peripheral to their dogma's core and encounter cognitive dissonance. Rather than admit their assumptions may need to shift they then accuse scientests of being the priesthood and trying to take control. There were a number of willful ignorants claiming that math and text based programming were just gatekeeping for a "computer priesthood" back roughly around the dot com bubble when they were feeling envious despite every notion being patently ridiculous - the programming languages made it more accessible and the math is domain fundamental.

The closest apparent thing to a "science priesthood" would be authoritarians wearing science's skin as a clothing but well that is frankly isn't unique as that is what authoritarians have always to every ideology. See every dictator claiming to be a god-king, theocract, first citizen, "president for life", or similiar mask.