Physics being defined as the study of the structure of reality, and, in particular, Theoretical Physics being defined as the construction of frameworks to aid in the study of the structure of reality.
As to Progress, I define this as having frameworks (i.e., theories) that are better than previous ones, in terms of the following heuristic measures (not an exhaustive list):
these provide improved understanding of the nature of reality in terms of improved elegance and generality,
make detailed predictions that, when checked by experiment, have improved accuracy over predictions from predecessor models,
they make detailed predictions that apply in regimes that previous frameworks did not, and which, when checked by experiment, are accurate, and also
are concrete enough in their explication that they should be able to lead to the development of new technologies at some point down the track