That’s one of the easier fixes IIRC.
While DNC chairs have consolidated a great deal of power, have many ways to self-deal and dig-in using the bylaws (such as determining caucus partitions/schedules and being superdelegates for life) their position is subject to internal approval of DNC membership itself. That is, you can just fire them. You don’t have to wait for them to resign to call for their replacement.
Regardless the committee is more like an HOA than a government body. They make suggestions and endorsements, host the convention, support candidacies strategically and financially, and threaten to take that away if you break rank. But they have no authority to say who runs, or even who runs as a Democrat.
But most importantly, AOC has always been a grass roots candidate. It would be great to have DNC support, their backing and resources, but she’s never needed it before. I can’t imagine she wants it now.
In fact, I think it’s far more likely that the DNC will one day ask her to endorse them.
1960s was when the hypothesis of continental drift was empirically confirmed (leading to modern plate tectonics) but it was part of a prominent family of hypotheses (contending with isostatic models) more than a century prior.
The most complete of these models was offered by Wegener (paper in 1912, book in 1920). European geologists were generally receptive to it in the 1920s, and by the 1940s it was the working assumption for most field work. The only geologists to outright reject the idea initially were part of a North American contingent.
As to why Americans in particular, there were a few reasons, but a big one is that they didn’t read German and the first English edition of Wegener’s book was a draft-quality translation with issues relating to clarity and “tone.” The author was perceived to be dismissive of current work in the field (he was merely unaware of similar models offered previously) culminating in a summit seminar where a talk was given challenging the hypothesis and criticizing the methodology.
Interestingly, Wegener attended this talk, yet chose to remain silent. He never confirmed why. I would guess language barrier and shyness but I don’t know. Regardless, the matter was considered closed by those in attendance and his model’s acceptance by North American geologists lagged behind.
As a result, geology in American primary education saw the most dramatic curricular shift in the 1970s and 1980s. I suspect that’s why older Americans have this impression of a sudden change in scientific consensus. The true story is more interesting IMO.