The Sociology of String Theory

US economic growth slowed by more than half from 3.2% per year during the period from 1970 to 2006, according to economist Robert Gordon. Has intense politics for want of a better word in the physics community distorted the community's ability to make new major discoveries? I think the main reason that things have slowed down in terms of progress in fundamental physics is simply that we were so successful in bringing things together in the 70s and 80s,. And it's really been hard to get beyond that.