I wish I shared your optimism. Maybe the LHC will discover something amazing and all will be well. But let's look at the history of some of the past colliders .
-I would argue that the last truly unexpected discoveries at particle colliders were the tau lepton (1976) and the charm quark (1974), on the SPEAR accelerator in Stanford.
-In 1977 the bottom quark was discovered at Fermilab. I guess this was also pretty amazing, but it was sort of expected because of the tau.
-The Super Proton Synchrotron: 1981-1984, Collision energy ~400 gigavolts. It was expected to discover the W and Z bosons, and everyone hoped it would also find the top quark or something more exotic. It discovered the W and Z bosons exactly where they were predicted to be but nothing unexpected.
-Large Electron Positron Collider: 1989-2000. Was expected to make very precise measurements of existing particles in hopes of finding disagreement with the standard model, but agreement held perfectly. Also hoped to discover the higgs, but did not.
-PEP-II: 1999-2008. Was expected to make very precise measurements of existing particles in hopes of finding disagreement with the standard model, but agreement has held perfectly.
-The Tevatron: 1987-2009?, collision energy ~2 terravolts. Currently the world's most powerful accelerator. It was expected to discover the top quark, and everyone had high hopes that it would also discover the higgs, supersymmetry, or something even more exotic. All it has come up with is the top quark, though the higgs *may* still be within reach before the collider shuts down in 2009.
-The Super Conducting Super Collider, collision energy ~40 terravolts. Canceled in 1993 in the middle of construction. RIP.
-The LHC: 2008?-?, collision energy ~14 terravolts. It is expected to discover the higgs, and people hope it may also demonstrate something exotic like supersymmetry, extra dimensions, or mini black holes.
If the LHC discovers more than just the higgs it would surely be the most important discovery since the charm and tau discoveries in the 1970s. There is good reason to hope, but that hope did not pan out for the last several accelerators, even though two of them (the Super Proton Synchroton and the Tevatron) caused similar monumental increases in collision energy.
Edited by fgarb, : Adding note on the SSC