started around 20 years ago, not within the last 8.
It is a cyclical process, always has been.
What is happening is not a plunge into recession, it is a drop back to 'reality'.
At the high points of the cycle, shares, indexes, property prices etc. are way overvalued. They have been that way for some time. The market has to revert back to normality from time to time (unless you wish to print endless money and have 500% or more inflation like some South American countries chose to do at the time).
Sometimes the drop to normality happens steadily over a year or two. Sometimes, like this time, it happens suddenly.

This time around, we have the internet, cable TV etc. Far more publicity.
Other than that it is no different to any other cycle.
Check back to the crash of the early 1990's. There was a similar bailout, its just that the general public never got to hear the same detail.

No one person was to blame. No one person could have avoided it happening. Many many people were involved.