Time For A New Paradigm?

In the post WIMP, supersymmetry, string theory, etc era, after these major theoretical trends of the last 45 years have come up empty-handed, especially at the LHC, is it not incumbent upon those who truly want to see progress in theoretical physics, as opposed to maintaining their personal status, to consider new and different paradigms for understanding the cosmos?

One can waste time adding on epicycles to Ptolemaic models, or build bigger accelerators without any real idea of what one is looking for. However, it seems to me that some serious effort should be devoted to identifying where the current paradigm in fundamental physics went off track, and whether there are alternative paradigms that might give us a more elegant and unified understanding of the cosmos.

Here’s my candidate:

NATURE’S STARTLING CLUE — CONFORMAL SYMMETRY