Really, this isn't just some far-flung theory but may be seen as a result of the experiments to find the Higgs particle. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21499765
Yeah, this sort of thing is interesting. There are those who suggest that we may provoke this kind of shift with our messing about with particle accelerators, though they're in a small minority. Also, there's a good chance that it already happened. Cosmic inflation (which apparently happened a teeny fraction of a second after the big bang and caused exponential expansion for a further teeny fraction of a second) may have come about because of transition to a lower energy vacuum.
People have been saying things like that for ages about the LHC. What none of them seem to get into their heads is there are events associated with cosmic rays that are millions of times more powerful and happen in the earths atmosphere all the time.