The problem is exactly as you surmised, you are working with popularized accounts, and probably written by someone with a less than academic understanding of evolutionary theory. Evolutionary theory never depends ""then magic happens". Does that mean that we understand every change in every organism? No. Might you cite some of these "Popular Proofs"
I suspect that the laziness is in not caring about understanding the real the science. Evolutionary theory is the result of 100+ years of detailed taxonomic and genetic studies. And our understanding of the relationship between species changes from time to time as new evidence supports differing explanations. Talk to a biologist, professor or biology teacher if you want good information. (for the most part avoid elementary teachers, their science background is at best suspect) You cant do it in 500 words or 10 mins.
The development of molecular biology (the study the molecular basis of life) has revolutionized how we study evolution. It has caused us to reevaluate some parts of our theory, but mostly it has provided additional strong evidence that supports the theory of evolution.