Edward Frenkel is a bigshot mathematician who has worked with Ed Witten.  But starting at 2:41:30 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_oPMcvHbAc&t=9690s

he points out the failure of string theory - and worse, how the leaders of string theory have never acknowledged this failure:

He mocks the string theorist Andy Strominger, who now says string theory's original goal of unifying all the forces and particles was "really a small thing."

Frenkel says:

"Remember Moses?  He took the Israelites out of Egypt and he told them that he would lead them to the promised land.   Imagine that Moses, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, says "You know guys?  This idea of a promised land - it's not such a big thing. Look how much we've learned!  We've learned about the desert.  We've learned so much about the sand.  Who cares about the promised land?"

"People call it "moving the goal-posts".  This is not moving the goal-posts!  This is going to a different stadium and starting to play a different game - like you used to play soccer at one stadium, and you move to a different stadium and start playing baseball, but you say you're still playing soccer".