The changes that occur happens gradually over time and becomes acceptable or "normal" in our mind.
Generally speaking there are two broad areas of science/R&D
1) The radical stuff where something entirely new gets discovered and worked up over a few years.
2) The far more common stuff where small, iterative improvements happen over the course of a career.
The really radical stuff does not seem to get reported as much as it once was, though at the same time I was not around for the discovery of quantum mechanics so those ten years over which the basics were thrashed out might have appeared similar to the bits and drip feed we think we see today.
On the radical thing I should also mention three things
1) Drug interaction computer modelling
2) Materials computer modelling
3) Memristors.
1 and 2 I have linked things for a few times now but
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/02/material_science_on_petaflops_2d_to_3d/ and
http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/news/casp.html
The short version is up until then (so within the last ten years) science was a glorified game of "what does this button do?"/"what if I mix these?", highly refined . If you can model the interactions, even if it does take real time on a super computer at present, then that changes everything.
Granted for 3) I probably should link
http://www.hpcwire.com/2015/06/11/h...rom-its-machine-roadmap-until-further-notice/ However a new type of fundamental component that has real applications in digital electronics is rather big news.
Taking a step back from science -- mobile phones have gone from the obscenely rich, to rich and has a reason to have one (usually doctors on call), to only the nerdiest of the nerdy, to it is not uncommon for mid-late teenagers to have them and now to you are a freak for not having one and it is nothing for little kids to have them. Likewise personal computers went from crazy expense that only those with a reason had (early 80s), something a bit more common (later 80s with things like the C64 and Amiga), to one of the bigger expenses a family or person might have (third on the list after house and car, fourth if you live somewhere and need to purchase health insurance) to it not being unusual to have more than one per person and now to "I have a phone and a tablet".
Predicting the timelines for it* and potential future trends is hard and I am abysmal at it as far as consumer electronics goes.
*there is the amusing image of MS with their tablet unveiled some 10 years ago which fizzled and the ipad which did much the same (or even the same and more locked down) and we know how that goes. By similar token palmtop computers existed for ages (see something like the Sony CLIÉ or HP pocketpc). Or if you prefer some have only got into video streaming with things like netflix in recent times, I imagine many around here had much the same functionality (or better because, you know, lack of licensing deals to hold things up and offline support) well over 10 years ago with p2p and usenet.