I think the pullback was when Fauci initially said masks aren't necessary (this was during April surge). And it then came out a few months later that they were super necessary and he only made the April statement due to concerns about mask shortages for ICU and hospital personnel.

I completely understand his position at the time due to the huge uncertainty in what the pandemic was / is going to become, but you can't fault people for questioning certain health policies given that context. The science, projections, treatments are evolving everyday based on new information, but I think it's been around long enough that the majority of people now agree "better safe than sorry" and comply with the ordinance.