You're aware that's how it works, right?
When trains were a big deal, everything was "express." It's the whole reason we even use "express" to mean what it does today. When we first harnessed the atom, everything had to have something to do with radioactive junk, until such time as we figured out that was a bad idea. There's a reason the Fallout series is full of that stuff: the period it is supposed to be imitating did the same thing. In the jet age, we had the same deal as with trains, and that's also when various plastics got big. Plastic completely transformed our approach to industry. The weird, round, bubbly look things were given in the late 70s and early 80s was intentional, as it could only be economically done with plastic; we think of it as tacky today, but they actually wanted to show off that their stuff was made with plastic, or just invoke a "plastic" design aesthetic to give an impression of modernity.
Society in general spends lots of time only spending money on things that are safe. This itself makes innovation less safe than it already is It's why "venture capitalist" sounds boring at best, and it's why "ivory tower" is a pejorative. Of course they're not doing anything useful. Nobody's giving them any money, so all they can do is think about all the cool shit they'd do if they had any. When those two groups start having the same goal for a little while, that's usually the prelude to a great historical leap. Because we recognize this, it can be, and often is, exploited by hucksters, obviously. But there's a reason it works: when you look at the pace things are moving, it feels like we're due.
