There was no great backlash in public attitudes--rather slightly the reverse.  But with media help the Government  was seized by the powers of War and of Big Money and the process of subversion and corruption has continued since.  

In reversing energy policy and undoing initiatives of conservation in 1980 the US committed itself to its present path of self-destruction--not irrevocably, but with decreasing likelihood of recovery toward survival with each passing year.  

The crisis you are seeing just this year is the leading edge of a collapse that will be at least as dramatic as that which overtook the Soviet Union.  

The Fates are kind.