Purely coincidental as it was right about the same time the free money, loan to anybody that can fog a mirror standards ran it's course. Most people don't want to hear that. Martians could have been in control of congress, it wouldn't have mattered.
No more/reduced consumer spending will contract our economy in a heartbeat as we make up about 65% of the total.
I dislike both big parties because they both want our money to spend it on worthless crap.