I have noticed a growing problem here during the last year or so - likely it surfaced/escalated when we got the reduced close vote consensus necessary reduced from 5 to 3.
There is a whole lot of people here with the bad habit of casting arbitrary and incorrect close votes. Often picking the wrong reason or close-voting perfectly on-topic questions.
When looking at closed questions, reviewers rarely ever agree on which close reason that should be used - this seems to be the norm here, where on other sites in the SE network, it is uncommon. Those who moderate the sites tend to know what the close votes for the specific site mean and when they should be used, but not so much here, nowadays.
I'm particular tired of watching perfectly fine questions gathering blatantly incorrect close-votes. I'm talking of things like questions with schematics + datasheets posted getting close-voted as "opinion-based", or questions about EMC regulations getting close-voted as "shopping recommendation". Completely out of the blue nonsense close votes. People seem to think close voting is appropriate for "I don't like the question" or "down vote deluxe".
The close-voting on Electrical Engineering in general stands out compared to other sites in the SE network. We seem to have a growing bad site culture and it seems to be a recent trend - I've been a member of this site for some 10 years, so I'd like to think I know the site culture quite well. Perhaps this happened when all those veteran users/mods quit pretty much all at once, a few years back? Leaving a "moderation vacuum" behind.
What can be done about this? Is it a culture problem or an education problem? Should we flag questions such with blatantly incorrect close votes for moderator attention? Can moderators revoke close voting privileges specifically, like they can revoke review privileges?
EDIT Some of the worst examples that came up during a 20 close vote review round just now. Out of the 20 reviews this time, around 5 were correctly flagged/close voted, around 10 were incorrectly flagged/close voted and 5 were blatantly incorrectly flagged/close voted, I'll include those 5 below:
Why are patch antennas used instead of planar dipole antennas? 2 close votes as opinion-based. Sure it isn't a great question, but it isn't asking about opinions or best practices, it's an answerable question (size is the difference), if not a very interesting one.
How to define a mathematical formulation in order to derive required communication time of a core accessing memory? 1 close vote as opinion-based. This is not asking for opinions, but it's much too broad to be answered. Should be closed as needs more focus.
How can I identify test points in electrical circuits? 1 close vote as unclear, 1 as opinion-based. Perfectly answerable question ("it's those little plated circles indeed") if not very interesting. It is not unclear, it is not asking about opinions, can be answered by anyone who is the slightest experienced at working with PCBs. Should not be closed.
Novel CAN bus design - needs criticism 2 close votes as needs more focus. Should not be closed, design reviews with schematics and details posted are perfectly fine and on-topic. They even ask for specific things for the reviewer to focus on. It's a pretty good question.
Identifying Tenda F3 Router Burned SMD Regulator with Marking 297V0 1 close vote as opinion-based. It's a standard identification question, how is it asking for opinions? It's fairly obvious that the IC is some sort of voltage regulator, likely a buck converter, likely made by some obscure Asian manufacturer that isn't easy to track down. Should not be closed.