An important consideration is that Nobel prizes are for "great benefits to humankind", it usually means practical discoveries, and never theoretical work. The

An important consideration is that Nobel prizes are for "great benefits to humankind", it usually means practical discoveries, and never theoretical work. The world becoming more and more complex, the time span between the theoretical framework and the first experiments to the realization of something genuinely useful tends to become longer and longer. There are some fields where, with the time to become an expert plus the time for the discovery to become Nobel-worthy, it may become difficult to get a Nobel in a lifetime (so, at all).