Reflections of a stormy petrel

It seems to me that there is one great big gap in this summary, namely the assumption that visible mistakes in a theory will lead to its "breakdown." I think this is expecting too much of human nature. Unless a social structure, indeed a profession, is present in society for the purpose of debating theories, with a professional bias in favour of challenge, the most untenable theories will be preserved; indeed, formidable amounts of intelligence will be used to shore them up.