String theory had great marketing and so was able to convince politicians they would get answers in ten years if they just got money, which in turn meant those marketers had jobs. I call it marketing because regardless of the truth, a lot of money went into it for years with no useful results. Maybe a few more years of string theory research will discover it is right and makes some useful predictions - but so far it hasn't and most people outside have given up on it. (and it appears most in physics today expect it will never amount to anything - but since I'm not deep into physics that might be wrong)