I think you're understating the difficulty.<p>No amount of math can tease apart the indiscernibly complex.<p>We observe correlations naturally.  Assumed relationships. The sort which suggested God wanted us to dance to bring on rain.  But without controls, and without repeatable experimentation, we <i>can not have</i> a true scientific method.  The scientific method requires hypothesis, predictions, and <i>repeatable experimentations.</i>  One successful dance is an anecdote, many is a theory, decades of them is a law, still questionable.  But how can you repeat an experiment which takes place over a whole society of people, millions strong, with life constantly intervening?<p>This isn't only about soundbites, it's about having no means to achieve anything more definitive than soundbites.