Chpt 2 of "the Nature of Reality" by Richard Morris, 1987, outlines how Aether was dropped. It's going to have to be brought back IMO. You cannot have sunshine without the EM radiation having something to travel through. Chpt. 2 reveals the PROBLEMS that physicists faced when they dropped Aether and those problems are the starting point for rerequiring it. It's the basis for Quantumonics as well.

I would not recommend the book "The Nature of Reality" because although it has an account of how Aether was dropped, it celebrates that rather than disparages it. There are likely far better accounts of the neccessity of Aether that are out there but I just happened to have this book on my shelves and perused it, finding that gem about how and why Aether was dropped along with the problem with dropping it.