But it was not just economists battering on the doors of Downing Street and the Treasury. Their views were shared across industry, the trade unions, the media, the Labour Party and much of the Tory Party as well.
Critics derided Thatcher's policies as sado-monetarism. It seemed only a matter of time before the advent of the obligatory U-turn back to more spending and more borrowing. But it never came and the practitioners of the dismal science were proved spectacularly wrong.
Three decades later, is history about to repeat itself? In the face of much liberal left caterwauling, spending and borrowing are again being cut and at least one economist, Mr Ed Balls, is writing to The Times in protest. Chancellor George Osborne already feels the need to go on TV to announce he will not change course.
Bolstered by the shock 0.5 per cent drop in GDP in the last quarter, Balls is licking his lips. Every scrap of economic bad news will be gobbled up by this carnivore of a Shadow Minister to press his case that the Cameron/Osborne fiscal squeeze will condemn the economy to the dustbin. And today's liberal left, perhaps less potent and ideological than the past but still numerous, will pile in behind him in the hope of shaking the nerve of the Coalition.
In the Commons 30 years ago, Margaret Thatcher was asked to name two economists who agreed with her. Alan Walters and Patrick Minford, she replied. And alongside them was the steadiness of "Dead Sheep" Sir Geoffrey Howe, her Chancellor, and the advocacy of a small band of monetarist politicians and intellectuals.
The Iron Lady eventually saw off her critics as the economy turned. Cameron and Osborne will need to find similar steel to see through their age of austerity.
But they won't be able to do it alone. Like Thatcher they will need to find a band of disciples ready and willing to fight their corner.
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