The essence of "reform" was exchanging public purpose and solidarity for market forces. Or short-termism and greed if you prefer. All of it accompanied with an unceasing media barrage.
You are not wrong to say that people have been doing it to themselves but that doesn't mean there is no man behind the curtain.

Von überall könnte das Volk, Urbrut alles Undemokratischen, Zelle des Terrors, über die gewählten Hüter von Wachstum und Wohlstand® kommen. - flatter

Whose goal?

The goal of those who have worked to delegitimate and privatize Social Security and roll back governmental regulations. Yes, the yuppies and those who followed have done this to themselves, but not in a vacuum, not without encouragement and justification and not without the purchased complicity of the main stream media.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Well those who engineered this endless consumption as a culture and encouraged people (trough all means) to go for it. And we all know who they are. I do not need to spell it...
Those who used to send us numerous credit cards that we never asked for. Those who used to offer us more and more credits on our house equity. "Yes you (we) can" people...
Those who arranged for minimal wages that are so minimal so we HAD to take those credits. Those who encouraged our kids to leave school and work at Mc Donald's for peanuts so that they can leave parents home at the age of 15. Those who offered student's credits for degrees that our kids can use their diplomas as toilet paper now and are in debt for life. Those who are pushing our kids to go to do the Master now in order to get a job or stay in a job...and get more credit. After that they will ask for PhD just to get a bloody job and start with $30000 (that is for us lucky enough to leave over the oceans)...Those who tell us now that "it's OK not to be OK". Those who made us so poor that we cannot educate our children and who are working tirelessly to make our children even more poor (and busy) so that they cannot support us and help when we need it. And even worse who made us through this process so insensitive to the needs of our own blood.
List is endless. We know who they are and how very well they organised themself. It's not conspiracy theory...its reality.