Your critique of the field would be largely correct a half century ago when theory and ideology reigned, but if you speak to any group of econ doctoral candidat

Your critique of the field would be largely correct a half century ago when theory and ideology reigned, but if you speak to any group of econ doctoral candidates today I think you'd be surprised how hard they're genuinely striving to root themselves (and the discipline at large) in empiricism and evidence-based thought. The old guard still runs the show, of course, and the field will advance one death at a time.