And it's the ideologies that are the problem

Classical economics pretty much culminated with John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. In his work On Socialism Mill noted that, while the capitalists system was the most effective system known for generating wealth it did not follow that private ownership of that system was the most efficient means of distributing that wealth. Marx of course went further. That is what brought the 'neo' to classical economics.

Henry George showed just how damaging the classical economists could be in the hands of someone who cared about fairness to the people. At the same time economics was coming to be a more standard university discipline. Several of the very wealthy wanted to make certain that a version of economics was taught that was favorable to their interests. Add to that the fact that the most likely employment outside of academia for economists was in banking and in the administration of large privately owned trade and manufacturing concerns and it is not hard to see why neo-classical economics developed.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."