Not following you there. In a mostly functional government I would expect to see either politicians with additional domain knowledge and few advisors or pure government functionaries with many advisors who had significant sway in their area of expertise. The current situation seems indicative of a particular ideological influence combined with the aforementioned career politician phenomenon.
I am not asserting a lack of economists—just a lack of influence over policy-in-practice.
You expect this in equilibrium regardless of how far you are from the counterfactual with no economists, so this is not evidence either way.
Not following you there. In a mostly functional government I would expect to see either politicians with additional domain knowledge and few advisors or pure government functionaries with many advisors who had significant sway in their area of expertise. The current situation seems indicative of a particular ideological influence combined with the aforementioned career politician phenomenon.
I am not asserting a lack of economists—just a lack of influence over policy-in-practice.