I believe I said that. You might be confusing the reason for various sciences to get stuck with the mechanism of how they actually get stuck. The reason is that

I believe I said that. You might be confusing the reason for various sciences to get stuck with the mechanism of how they actually get stuck. The reason is that groups of people have common characteristics over time. As for the mechanism, I'm with you. Always assume the simplest explanation unless there's some evidence otherwise. Missing the "mental tools required to do the work" can be as simple as not being popular in your field of study, or a character unable to get funding or provide the oversight of funding that is necessary for your science to advance. I believe if you understand the reason, you realize that you could very well end up playing whack-a-mole simply by trying to fix the various mechanisms. That would be a tragedy.