We aren't living through it yet, although we are heading in that direction. I worked on Wall Street for ten years, and I think it got what it deserved this year. There were always far too many salesmen and far too few thinkers, and the emphasis was always on how to make a quick buck, not on how to create an investment of real value.
Everyone is calling for more regulation, but I think the quicker fix would be to abolish all regulation. With no protection in place, all but the sturdiest and most trustworthy institutions would crumble to the ground, because the public would have completely lost faith and pulled their money out. The few winners would be those people and firms who truly placed their clients' interests before their own, those who had demonstrated the highest levels of competence and ethics over time. 90% of the people in financial services don't need to be there. More regulation only gives firms more things to dodge, avoid, or work around. You can't get around the faith of the public though.
So I think that going down the path of more government intervention is a bad thing. I actually look at Bush as a liberal Democrat, because he always seemed hellbent on expanding the government, growing the debt, and jumping in to save industries that don't really need saving. Let the market take care of all that, it does a better job of it, and more cheaply. Plus we learn lessons better and recover faster that way. If Obama is wise, and I think he is, then he will put the brakes on a lot of those things. If the movers and shakers of society get too disillusioned with government intervention, then they will opt out of the system and let it founder.