What I saw was the use of the 9/11 turned into an opportunity for those in this administration who had spent decades seizing power (read the history of the CIA and the senior Bush's family involvement since WWII). They implemented new laws and then threw out all the carefully built regulations under their last son (GWBush) to complete their financial rape of this country's wealth and moved on to other nations under the guise of national security. It might have worked had they been socialists instead of oligarchs.
Instead the money went into THEIR pockets and the laws of the land they wrote effectively hid the theft of our nation from the backs of it's worker.

Bush and Cheney longtime oil interests.
Bush Sr. in Big Pharma.
Cheney in overseas construction contracts. I

While "regulations" were being thrown overboard, the plundering continued unabated. It was a free-for-all as financial responsibility was manipulated by the criminals and hidden under new laws. When the oil companies bent us over with their $4 a gallon gas, I KNEW the country would go into a downhill slide because everything in this country depends on that to move us around from development of a product from it's first stages to the shipping destination on the other. Companies with small profit margins could not hold on. Everyone borrowed from the oligarchs at spurious interest rates. And now, after the oilmen and the banks have squeezed the lifeblood out of most Americans, the snake is finally eating it's tail.

So, gas is $2 a gallon now. But I'll bet our consumption had dropped and those oil companies have THEIR bills to pay too. But the rich oil execs alhave their new mahogany cruisers, their bonuses and own mega companies all over the world. The bank CEOS make millions for a 6 month contract coming and going and shifting legal responsibility and they all have their lavish lifestyles.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the people start up websites with photos of these crooks and their families and start posting their addresses on the web. Maybe a modern day France-like revolution where the street peasants call for their heads.

I think the worst of our economy has barely started. As banks and companies continue to fold and there is no credit anywhere, there will be massive layoffs and unemployment benefits will drain what's left of our once great nation.