I mean, sure, you're absolutely right: the fundamentals are kind of a mess, especially with respect to quantum gravity. (But not cosmological gravity!) In many

I mean, sure, you're absolutely right: the fundamentals are kind of a mess, especially with respect to quantum gravity. (But not cosmological gravity!) In many ways the Standard Model is a mixed blessing: it works really, really well... right up until it has nothing at all to offer. If it didn't work quite so well, things would be more interesting. It doesn't help that there aren't all that many experiments left to do (in the fundamentals realm). Either they're likely to be uninteresting, or they're currently beyond our reach. I think there are going to be many lean years ahead for fundamental particle physics. I used to work on neutrino experiments, but (as the username indicates), don't do that stuff any more. I could link my publication record, but all that's really there is a bunch of nitty-gritty detector characterization, plus a few blockbusters that my name got on because, well, I helped build the bloody detector :) Turns out that if you can build neutrino detectors that work, there are plenty of other things you can do with your life....