Only failed technologies seem magical. Only technologies without everyday applications.
Magical thinking, by the way, is an excellent way for scientists to get grant money. Perhaps it is now the only way. A scientist is meant to be dis-interested, but someone reliant on short-term grant based funding is not dis-interested: they have a strong financial interest in producing results. Even the best, most well meaning person will see ghosts if they have at the back of their minds that there is money riding on it.
Meanwhile, fringe science seems as healthy as ever. Psychic healing, herbal cures, yoga, etc. It's even getting grant money these days. Is this because the people pushing this stuff are clever charlatans... or is it simply because science as practiced today would not refute these hypothesese? Anti-depressants seem to have similar levels of dodgyness, amazingly skimpy trials, data fudging, result burying. If that's the standard, the fringe is no different from the center.