With strong telescopes, scientists say they can still detect faint echoes of the Big Bang. Sometimes I wonder if maybe they’re picking up cosmic interference from a different signal event that won’t fade away.

I’m talking about the Baby Boom.

The generation that went from Woodstock to Wall Street to the White House should really now be packing the proverbial Winnebago. But retirement was never part of the rock ’n’ roll fantasy. From Capitol Hill to the economy’s commanding heights, the baby boomers aren’t letting go.

Once upon a time, they wouldn’t trust anyone over 30. Now they won’t let anyone under 60 near the corner office — or the Oval Office.

Baby boomer Donald Trump is already the oldest person ever to have won the presidency. If he defies the impeachers and wins again in November, that’ll be eight straight boomer presidential victories — a better run even than the Founding generation.

A re-elected Trump will be 78 when he leaves office in January 2025. You wouldn’t give your 78-year-old grandfather the Amazon password, never mind the nuclear codes.

That goes double for the Democrats. If Joe Biden wins, he’ll be 78 when he’s inaugurated. Bernie Sanders is already 78 — and recently had a heart attack. Mike Bloomberg turns 78 on Valentine’s Day. Elizabeth Warren would be a year older on her first day as president than Trump was on his.

Look past the presidency. Everybody’s ancient. Mitch McConnell is about to turn 78. Nancy Pelosi will be 80 in March.

Look past politics. Anna Wintour is still running Conde Nast at 70. Robert Iger, 68, helms Disney. It’s boomers all the way down.

Whatever happened to 65 and out? Whatever happened to “I hope I die before I get old”? Apparently, these guys weren’t kidding when they said, “Hell no, we won’t go!”

Baby boomers have always prided themselves on defying convention. And — credit where it’s due — they’ve never wavered. Whether shocking their parents with zeal for the sexual revolution or shocking their children with zeal for conspicuous consumption, boomers resolutely refuse to do the traditional thing.

That defiance extends to what are supposed to be the golden years. And to the idea of cleaning up their own mess. Baby boomers don’t like to hear it, but the stardust they kicked up over a half-century hangs heavy in the atmosphere. It’s grinding a lot of gears.

Take a look around. Can you name a single institution of American life that’s functioning better today than it was before the boomers took over? I bet you can’t.

Higher education. Organized religion. Health care. Journalism. Finance. Politics. As boomer poet laureate Bob Dylan said, everything is broken.

Picking up the pieces will be the perpetually ignored members of Generation X. We’ve always lived in the baby boomers’ shadow. Now, because of their collective reluctance to hit the bricks, we get the weird privilege of being locked out of the top jobs during our most productive years.

Ask Cory Booker and Kamala Harris how things are looking career-wise. Or kick the question over to Paul Ryan, the youngest retiree at the Janesville senior center canasta table.

The big chill will get the baby boomers eventually, that’s true. But guess who’s coming to dinner after that? Hordes of impatient millennials conditioned by Google, Facebook and Amazon to accept nothing less than instant satisfaction. Gen X gets squeezed from both ends.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be of age to run for president in 2024. She doesn’t seem keen to wait a few cycles for her turn to come around. Does anyone think we won’t be hearing the name Pete Buttigieg, 38, for the rest of our natural lives?

My advice to Gen Xers in politics or any other career is simple: If an opportunity to lead presents itself, grab it while you have the chance. The window won’t be open long.

Matthew Hennessey is the author of “Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from Millennials” (Encounter), which is out now in paperback.