I don't consider Baez to be giving unbiased opinions, since he takes a non-mainstream, minority perspective and dislikes much contemporary theoretical physics research.
Kuhn wrote extensively about
breakthroughs in knowledge. The existing "paradigm" is "what members of a scientific community, and they alone, share." and to break it requires a different view which begins by criticizing the things the current paradigm ignores. You cannot be mainstream and have a breakthrough.
There are a number of anomalies in the current paradigm that do not require "big science" to see. One is the
Pioneer Anomaly and another is the
Faint Sun Paradox. There are many others along these lines which are not explainable.
Then there is the problem of rent seekers taking over science.
Global Warming is just one famous example.
I disagree about breakthroughs not happening recently. The most recent paradigm shift occurred in the 70s when Plate Tectonics was finally put on a firm
footingA lot of work went into validating the theory once people began to throw out much of the invalid work of the previous century. This breakthrough led to another on
Ice Ages.
And then there is the
microprocessor revolution which has not end in
sight has driven down the
cost of knowledge.
And lets not forget the discovery of
DNA and the elimination of disease and death that will occur.
