Problems soon cropped up in practice, though. Attempts to use demand management instruments to respond to supply-side shocks like the oil crises in the 1970s just made matters worse. Not just that: it was not possible to predict the ups and downs of the business cycle with any great certainty, or it was impossible to respond in time.
As a result, what had been conceived as a countercyclical policy proved to be procyclical in some respects. Economic ﬁnetuning increasingly turned out to be a fantasy. This prompted intense academic and political debate over the need to change the trajectory and direction of economic policy.