That's probably true for macro-economics. Alas that's also the part where people disagree about whether it made objective progress.

Micro-economics is much more approachable with experiments etc.

Btw, I didn't suggest to completely disregard history. Physics and civil engineering don't completely disregard their histories, either. But they also don't engage in constant navel gazing and re-hashing like a good chunk of the philosophers do.