I've always thought that macroeconomics should be studied with a realistic perspective, and that does somewhat seem to be the direction economists are going with agent based modeling. Though perhaps too much on the math side and not enough fundamental thinking.

This is how I've always done my analysis. Start with 1000 people. Group them into 500 households along an age curve. Give each person a money account and assets along a wealth curve. Set up 100 businesses and the government. Study the dynamic system and gradually increase the realism/complexity with central banking, credit cards, etc. This is the hard unsimplified way but you will uncover the absolute truth of our system.