The increased usage of the phrase “modeling” seems to correlate to the rise and proliferation of Excel spreadsheet usage among managers and even line workers.  As more managers became proficient in computerized spreadsheet work, their efficiency in tracking their past work and “modeling” what they expected in the future theoretically expanded as well.  I’m sure the authors of the day picked up on the idea that spreadsheets (“modeling”) were a tool to help predict the future . . . And therefore were valuable . . . FOR PREDICTING THE FUTURE

The Excel Depression, Paul Krugman, The New York Times, 4/19/2013