[hawktheslayer]

In Isaac Asimov's "End of Eternity" he posed a similar concept where contrary to the butterfly effect where minor changes ripple through time, time has a mechanism of self-preservation which is resistant to change. Asimov never ceases to amaze me with how prescient he was for his time.

[interfixus]

Such is also the underlying premise in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol universe.