American science has stalled since the 1980s due to institutional capture, precarity-driven conformity, and the elimination of high-risk research—but breakthrough physics breakthroughs in propulsion, dark chemistry, and unified field theory could fundamentally transform civilization if scientists are freed from peer review tyranny and funded as individuals rather than ideas. The Mansfield Amendment (1969-71) cut military funding for blue-sky research at universities, shifting toward peer review and consensus-driven science that punishes heterodox thinking and kills the 'cowboy science' that built American dominance.