My college physics professor told us that "Nothing is Fundamental" and then explained that we will always be finding ever smaller components to the universe and matter. So far he has been right and I think he will continue be correct.
How long ago were you in college? That 'nothing is fundamental' has the ring of S-matrix theory about it. S-matrix theory began in the 1940's and had mostly run its course by the 1970's.
Here's a characterization of S-matrix theory that is based on the still-popular Fritjof Capra book, The Tao of Physics, first published in 1975 (note the phrase that I've red-fonted):
S-matrix theory (S = scatter) describes the world of subatomic particles as a dynamic network of “events” (hadrons) and emphasizes change and transformation rather than fundamental structures or entities. Under the S-matrix theory (which is not accepted by all physicists), being holistic and dynamic, particles are seen as interrelated energy patterns in an ongoing universal process - as correlations, or interconnections between various parts of an inseparable cosmic web. There are no distinct entities and no Newtonian building blocks; there is only a flow of energy showing certain well-defined patterns. (This ties in with Eastern thought (Buddhist) where all things are seen as dynamic, impermanent and illusory).
The hadron bootstrap hypothesis - a philosophy of nature and theory of particles deriving from S-matrix concepts (Geoffrey Chew). This hypothesis rejects Newton's universe constructed from a set of basic entities with certain fundamental properties, which had been created by God and thus were not amenable to further analysis. In Chew's concept, the universe is seen as a dynamic web of interrelated events. None of the web properties are fundamental - they rather flow from the properties of the other parts, and the overall consistency of their mutual interrelations determines the structure of the entire web. It also abandons fundamental laws, equations and principles (derived from the belief in a divine lawgiver). Physicists are coming to see that all their theories of natural phenomena ("laws") are creations of the human mind; properties of our conceptual map of reality rather than reality itself, and that scientific theories and models are approximations of the true nature of things. All theories and laws are mutable, destined to be replaced by more accurate laws when the theories are improved. Step by step, as theories improve and increase in accuracy, we will 'bootstrap' toward (but maybe never reach) the ideal answers. The hypothesis, in that it does not rest on or within a framework, is considered unscientific (it leads beyond science).
Late 1960-ish/early 1970-ish thinking, most definitely.