History, too, seemed to indicate that change was on the way. After the Panic of 1873  which saw a run of bank failures, the shutdown of the New York Stock Exchange and soaring unemployment  labor unrest lasted for decades.

Three decades later, the Panic of 1907 saw prominent American lenders collapse, leading eventually to the creation of the Federal Reserve, a central bank to watch over all others.

“Traditionally, the idea of a central bank had been repulsive,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist and co-author of an international survey of financial crises, “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.”

The Great Depression so tormented Americans that it delivered the New Deal, a muscular collection of government programs whose hallmarks  unemployment insurance and Social Security  remain the primary components of the modern-day social safety net. The banking crises of the 1930s prompted the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act, which divided investment banks from deposit-taking banks to prevent rampant speculation with ordinary people’s savings, while instituting government guarantees on deposits. (Many economists believe the final repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 played a key role in the reckless investment that triggered the latest crisis.)

Memories of trauma can last a long time. Nearly a century has passed since Germany suffered the hyperinflation that helped set the stage for Hitler; yet even today, fear of rising prices remains the primary force in contemporary German policy. Earlier this year, governments from Washington to Beijing unleashed government spending to spur economic activity. Not Germany, ever vigilant against triggering an upward spiral of prices.

The shock that accompanied the end of the American real estate boom once seemed a sentinel event that would bring tighter government scrutiny of the financial realm. Yet as fear of catastrophe fades, the question is how quickly the momentum in Washington for tighter financial rules is diminishing and whether unemployed workers and strapped homeowners will feed a groundswell for change strong enough to offset government turf wars and the influence of financial industry lobbyists.

In Washington, on Wall Street and on Main Street, many are aware that the era of lightly supervised markets was fabulously lucrative for those positioned to capture a piece. Financial services and real estate  nurtured by easy money  swelled into major sources of employment, while boosting stock portfolios for huge institutions and ordinary people alike. New York cemented itself as the global financial capital.