> We had back then, and still have, a huge amount of experimental evidence in that field, and no one can explain any of it... so they gave up.

I'm not a physicist, but from the outside, it appears to me the last 10 years have seen a huge leap in understanding the nucleus. See [1]. Or am I misinterpreting that article?

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2020.00379...