You just need to have a view of the human race where people are very good at looking at their belly, but very bad at seeing the general picture (unless they do an effort, in fact even if they do an effort they might fail).

I imagine the following scenario: Fat cat is sitting on his office, all goes well. Profits start plunging, fat cat starts to worry. Fat cat phones friend and former colleague Paulson asking for help. People at Treasury, having been in the same position as the fat cat can relate to his problem and think it is a really fundamental problem that needs to be addressed or society is Doomed(TM). They've been there, they can relate. If they've had another life experience (say, having trouble finding a job and feeding their kids) they might consider other types of problems important.

Even if they cared for the welfare of all, their view on how to tackle the problem would be severely constrained by their life experiences.

As the sh.t hits the fan, they just want to sort out things in order to get back to their normal lifes. If that means big state intervention, that is of a minor consideration now.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness - Bertrand Russell