As Lord Skidelsky argued in a recent article in the Financial Times, economics tried to be more like physics with precise predictive abilities based on mathematical models rather than like sociology or psychology where the outcomes are determined by human behaviour and therefore beyond the pale of precise modelling and exact predictions.
Undoubtedly, the mathematical models helped economic analysis and aided in determining optimal solutions. The trouble though was that the mathematical abstractions got carried too far, and in the process economics lost its link with real life situations that it was expected to study and analyze. In other words, mathematical models became an end in themselves and assumed a life of their own.