It's not fair to say that it's theoretical macro that has the major impact on policymakers. Look at the most influential (in a political sense) economists/social scientists these days, and they're advising policymakers about things on a much more granular scale (eg: the particular effects of sub-components of the ACA on consumer behavior, the barriers to equality of opportunity in impoverished areas, etc.). I think the outsider view of economics is stuck in the "schools of thought" era, which has all but vanished from serious economics. And the libertarian mention is called for when the other comments are using common dog-whistles for libertarian distrust of central banking (via a sort of "fruit of the poisonous tree" argument).