Dominant Paradigm

The "dominant paradigm" is science's way of enshrining what it knows (and thinks it knows) into something akin to a religion. Then, when new ideas come around -- whether true or not -- they are tested not against reality, but instead against the dominant paradigm, and/or personal bias, and rejected not based on hard evidence and empirical testing, but instead based on reasoning within the rules dictated by the dominant paradigm.

The fundamental flaw is a failure to know history. The current authorities have, century after century after century, assumed that they knew all there was to know about whatever it was under discussion. What usually succeeds at eliminating the dominant paradigm is the death of its authorities, and fresh minds who, having lived with the controversy, are not averse to the newer ideas. Then, not being students of history, they grow into the next generation of authorities, and the cycle repeats.

For the quintessential example of this, google "Semmelweis reflex" and feel lucky!