Actually there are trends in modern science to do this. The self qualia. The illusion that one exists is an undercurrent philosophy out there. Also cases are made by both religious and scientific people that the notion of a self - here - that looks at things - there is false. This is replaced by ideas of phenomena. I just read a book by a physicist who was putting forward the idea that NOWS are the only things that exist. Not selves. Not objects. Simply Nows.
Sure, but try telling that to the IRS!
Seriously (although that about the IRS is just as serious), there is plenty of ways to deconstruct the notion of self, to expose it as unsubstantiated etc.
But to employ these ways leads to a neurosis, paranoia.
The Western people, and some Eastern, that produced these ways to deconstruct the self are starting from the tradition of Western thought and science: it is only the truth that matters. They didn't take into account that the pursuit of truth might actually make people miserable, worse even, unable to function. Western philosophy has lived, usually, as an intellectual hobby, serious people talking about serious stuff, but not really taking it seriously. They tell you "who you really are", but they can't tell you what good it will do you to know "who you really are".
They instruct you to deconstruct, but they offer no goal for that that a person concerned about their wellbeing would ever pursue.
...
Even when you've had only a first, humbling taste of this freedom, you appreciate how adroitly the teaching on not-self answers the question of "What is skillful?" And you understand why the Buddha recommends putting the question of "Who am I?" aside. To begin with, it wouldn't have taken you to this freedom, and could well have stood in freedom's way. Because your "I" is an activity, any attempt to pin it down before you had mastered the processes of activity would have left you pouncing on shadows, distracted from the real work at hand. Any attempt to deconstruct your "I" before it had become healthy and mature would have led to a release neurotic and insecure: you'd simply be running away from the messy, mismanaged parts of your life. In addition, any answer to the question "Who am I?" would be totally inappropriate to describe your new-found freedom, for it's a dimension apart, where the concepts of "I," "not-I," "am," "am not" do not apply.
From Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Questions of skill