  We report angle-resolved Raman scattering observations of the temperature
dependent Landau damping of the acoustic plasmon in an electron bilayer system
realised in a GaAs double quantum well structure. Corresponding calculations of
the charge-density excitation spectrum of the electron bilayer using forms of
the random phase approximation (RPA), and the static local field formalism of
Singwi, Tosi, Land and Sj\"{o}lander (STLS) extended to incorporate non-zero
electron temperature $T_{\rm e}$ and phenomenological damping, are also
presented. The STLS calculations include details of the temperature dependence
of the intra- and inter-layer local field factors and pair-correlation
functions. Good agreement between experiment and the various theories is
obtained for the acoustic plasmon energy and damping for $T_{\rm e} \lesssim
T_{\rm F}/2$, the Fermi temperature. However, contrary to current expectations,
all of the calculations show significant departures from our experimental data
for $T_{\rm e} \gtrsim T_{\rm F}/2$. From this, we go on to demonstrate
unambiguously that real local field factors fail to provide a physically
accurate description of exchange correlation behaviour in low dimensional
electron gases. Our results suggest instead that one must resort to a
{\em{dynamical}} local field theory, characterised by a {\em{complex}} field
factor to provide a more accurate description.
