Those organisations are sclerotic because they ultimately answer to politicians, not to academics; they are political constructs first and foremost, serving specific national interests, with heads nominated by political leaders and (surprise) often lawyers themselves (e.g. Lagarde). In fact, during recent events in Greece it became clear how their own researchers disagreed with the policies being pushed from the top. It's like developers were forced to write websites in PASCAL because their employers told them to.

The Excel error is also exemplary of what I referred to as "pop economics": a single argument was "divulged to death" and transformed into mainstream orthodoxy even though it was still being confuted in academic circles.