I was asking about critical theory outside the policy debate structure. Saying "the economic debate" may have been misleading in that context.

What I mean was: Marxism is primarily an economic theory. But if I were a Marxist at a university in the 1990s, I doubt I would have won very many arguments about how flawed capitalism was, and how Marxism was a better way to structure an economy - not after the Soviet Union collapsed, and China embraced capitalism. So if I were such a Marxist, I might look for non-economic grounds on which to argue for Marxism.