I have recalled the monetarists and the Keynesians; much earlier there had been the protracted dispute between the Currency School and the Banking School, more recently the debate on the new classical macroeconomics.
The contraposition between distinct strands of thought derives not only from alternative visions of the working of the economy but also from a different emphasis, as a result of a different assessment of their empirical importance, on certain aspects of the phenomena investigated. Antithetical economic policy ideas and suggestions may then emerge.