[fabatka]

In uni I remember one of my professors telling us that the time gap between the awarding of the Nobel prize and the discovery for which it is awarded keeps getting longer (he was talking specifically about physics). I remember he also lamented George Gamow never getting a Nobel prize. (edit: grammar)

[leoc]

That's definitely the main cause, but in the case of Clauser at least there's the added wrinkle that for the first few years his work wasn't very popular with other physicists. His PhD advisor was writing recommendation letters specifically telling people not to hire Clauser for work on QM experiments: https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0508/0508180.pdf .

[efsavage]

This is sad, IIRC the goal (and reason it only goes to living people) is to throw good money after good, in the hopes of more to come, not simply reward past advances and fund retirements.

[tokai]

The goal was to rub Nobels reputation clean with the reputations of great living scientists.