Which is better for the economy—
1) For every company to control its relationships with all its customers in its own way? or
2) For every customer to control her relationships with all her companies in her own way?
What we get with the first is what @JohnBattelle complains about in Why the F*ck Can't We Fix "CRM"?
What we get with the second is VRM: Vendor Relationship Management.
What CRM gives the economy is a zillion different companies trying to manage relationships with customers in a zillion different ways, even if they all use one company's (e.g. Salesforce's or Oracle's) software or cloud services.
That's the first reason why CRM can't fix itself. Not matter how much better CRM makes "the customer journey" or "the customer experience," it's just one comppany's way.
The second reason is that CRM doesn't relate. You need two for that, and it can't happen if every company wants its customers to talk only in that company's own way.The third reason is that CRM, in practice, is premised on the belief that a captive customer is worth more than a free one.
VRM is premised on the belief that a free customer is worth more than a captive one: to herself, to the companies she deals with and to the whole economy.
Rather than opposing CRM, however, VRM is meant to engage CRM. To give every CRM system a hand to shake. To give the company a better company experience of customers.
VRM does this by giving customers superpowers, turning the marketplace into a Marvel-like universe in which all of us are enhanced. Read how at that either of those links.