Is it possible that technological progress isn't linear?

Seems to me that much of the technological advances have resulted from the major physics insights. Physics hasn't really had major new insights since the early 20th century. That's probably because we now fundamentally understand the workings of our universe. There are no new fundamental mechanisms. These fundamental mechanisms are the tools that can be used in technology. My contention is that since there are no new tools available, and haven't been for a long time now, and so this has resulted in a "saturation" in the technology innovation curve. The technological innovations, the new technologies that are possible will not be steadily increasing. At some point there will be no more new technologies.

Poynting vector

I've been thinking about the Poynting vector and how to reconcile it with logic. In the original paper Poynting demonstrated how for a resistor with a DC current the Poynting vector points inward. This indicates that the power is directed into the resistor. The E field points in the direction of the current. The H field circles around the resistor. The cross product is inward. Is the Poynting vector just an analog to P=I*V ? The H field is related to the current, the E field to the Potential drop. So, since I * V makes good logical sense (V is how much energy is given up by each unit of charge and I is the amount of charge per second so it makes total sense) then S=E X H is just a result of I*V, right???