Clear and present danger

Some innovations succeed to the point of redefining the problem they tackle. Some give way to better ones, or having served their time, fade into the section of the graveyard reserved for the no-longer-needed. Yet others fail flagrantly, and quickly: tagged as laughable, or a good idea poorly executed, or ill timed. A broad consensus rules.

Surely it ought to be impossible for an innovation to suffer all of these fates at once? To be a ubiquitous necessity, a permanent, empowering right, a watershed; and yet, a scourge, a threat, and an evil joke. Yet that unlikely status of divider-in-chief