Neither was a dead end. Each made real contributions to the field and have real applications but, not surprisingly, turned out not to be the silver bullet that could do all things. The statistical crowd was always there and have been good at the same set of things, it just finally matured as a field and was able to produce usable results.
They all go through the same motions as anything in this industry. They show promise, everyone gets all worked up about the new thing, it produces some results and gets integrated where it makes sense, gets boring and people start looking for the next thing.
They all go through the same motions as anything in this industry. They show promise, everyone gets all worked up about the new thing, it produces some results and gets integrated where it makes sense, gets boring and people start looking for the next thing.