I think not. James Howard Kunstler is a very well respected professor of urban design and architectural who's best known work, The Geography of Nowhere, is second only to perhaps A Pattern Language in its discussion of macro city design.

Even the oilman through whom I derive my paycheck recommended this book (by a Caltech professor), and agrees that the end of cheap energy is upon us.

And how many mainstream news sources have reported what these people had to say, at least until very recently? Even now, I bet if you asked the average CNN-watching American, most of them wouldn't know anything about Peak Oil. Rising prices at the pump would drive some people to look for the reason, so maybe we'll see more about it in the press in the near future. So far, that Rolling Stone article is the most mainstream press source I've seen to connect the dots as of yet.

For what it's worth, I've read peak oil coverage in The Economist, a UK-based magazine read mostly be upper-middle-class to upper-class business investors. The Economist's conclusions were similar to that of Kunstler's in Rolling Stone.