Edited sentence: Considering budgetary cut-backs and the re-alignment of social priorities, it is unlikely we will see the lamps of progress relit in our lifetime, at least in the field of magnetospheric physics.Good physical problems remain, but the magnetospheric research community is fragmented, in part because funding support has encouraged divisive competition rather than the emergence of unifying leadership.Meanwhile theory, which tends to guide successful research, was sidelined.Relative few significant discoveries and theoretical advances have occurred since 1985, but the reason is probably more social than scientific