Physicists usually build their theories based on arguments like:
$y=kx$ and $y= k \frac{1}{x}$
I agree that any process looks linear on a sufficiently small time frame or distance but why don´t professors take time to explicitly phrase this for their students, maybe even give some kind of proof. I bet it would help steer physics in the right direction again, starting from simple arguments like that to build up new and interesting models for physical happenings.