Theory has advanced beyond the experimenter's ability to check it. This is a precarious position for a science to be in. Because of this, particle physicists are becoming concerned about the future of their field. The particle theorists working on GUT's and TOE's engage in a highly mathematized philosophy. When theory gets too far beyond experiment it is no longer science.
Science is investigative, grounded in experiment.
Without experiment the development of thses theories must be considered a non-investigative pursuit. They may conform beautifully to the presuppositions that scientists have concerning what a GUT or a TOE should look like, but they are nonetheless only well founded speculations not certain knowledge of objectively existing objects. The lines dividing philosophy and science have blurred in the search for GUT's and TOE's, because it is here that the true character of scientific knowledge, that of well founded opinion, is revealed. Searching for the ultimate or final theory has made us better scientists and better humans. The benefit of the quest for the TOE is not the finding but in the searching.