Thanks to all for the replies. Joseph, squeak, thanks for the clarification! I can relate a story of my own, though, and would like to speak to the story quoted by squeak. My father happened to be at the Aguda Convention about 25 years or so ago. He was davening shacharis at a later minyan and saw R’ Moshe zt’l folding up his tallis to leave an earlier minyan. My father (who speaks a somewhat fair yiddish and can get by) felt this was an opportunity to precious to pass up and decided to go and give R’ Moshe sholom aleichem, in and of itself a learning experience. I don’t know quite how their conversation went (I think my father mentioned his brother was a posek), but at one point R’ Moshe told my father that the job of a posek (today) is to be maikil when he can. My father remembers this vividly (after all, it WAS R’ Moshe! You don’t forget that).
Let’s go back to squeak’s story. I’d respond to it by saying that it’s possible, knowing now what R’ Moshe’s beliefs were vis a vis paskening, that HAD R’ Moshe been contacted he MAY have changed or modified his p’sak for that community, if halachically possible in order . Squeak’s story doesn’t specify whether the Rov asked R’ Moshe for this particular p’sak for this particular group, whether the p’sak was generally issued through Igros Moshe and thus could’ve been issued on a case basis, whether R’ Moshe asked the psak be disseminated to the “hamon am”, or other scenarios. Who even said that this Rov was correct in HIS assessment of what he should or shouldn’t be asking R’ Moshe?? To me, squeak’s story doesn’t necesarily prove that decisions on matters of practical policymaking can’t be made by the gedolim for the klal without any input from the klal or experts within the klal acting on its behalf.
Additionally, please pay attention to my original point. I wondered whether manhigim can take input from the klal at all in making what are essentially policy decisions. I wasn’t asking whether manhigim should solicit opinions from laypeople on strict matters of halacha. Do we need to listen and obey without question should gedolim decide that investing in GM or ExxonMobil is a good idea for our mosdos to make some extra money or should we as a klal make suggestions and give input? Should we accept as an article of faith a gadol’s decision to build a yeshiva in a particular location in a particular city or suggest to the gadol that there may be a more advantageous site due to certain factors that the gadol might not have known about? This list could go on and on and on. The point is that nobody is omniscient and nobody knows absolutely everything there is to know in this wide world. In matters of halacha, our gedolim do indeed know best. In, say, more mundane matters, maybe also yes, then again maybe gedolim need input from experts or others to help them arrive at a decision that’s best for the klal.