In a way, you could see this coming back when the Tech Bubble started it's fluctuating. This credit thing has been a long time coming, and by no surprise. Trying to base economic gains and movement on money that people don't have but will need to pay back is a poor way to keep the money flowing through the system, and is destined to have an endpoint when the credit being pushed out can't be supported anymore by those it's being pushed to.
The writing on the wall for this was actually out there more than 3 years ago, right before the housing bubble burst. Just like techs, people had to realise that the housing buying spree couldn't be supported (just like the PC buying spree of the late 90's couldn't continue either), but no one paid attention to that fact, and instead kept hopping on, hoping they weren't too late to cash in like everyone else.
The difference between the tech bubble burst before and when the housing bubble burst is the fact that with Tech, it affected company infrastructures, some stocks, and jobs, but, really, wasn't anything that was at the core of most american's wealth.
Houseing, however, was. It was a direct hit on the foundation of 90% of middle america's saved funds, which is equity. The increase in home prices had, incorrectly, become the primary foundation of which most of america was basing their largest source of retirement income. When that burst, most of america took a big freakin kick to the nuts, and many people panicked in the thought that what they thought they had saved for their retirement was now gone.
Part of the issue is people don't pay attention ENOUGH to the news. Sure, they may listen to it, and say 'OMG, thats bad', but they don't file it away in their brains, and start using all of the daily input to look for the longterm trends, and this is how everything gets fucked up.
I could go off for pages on this, but I'll keep it short to say that really, I'm hoping this recession teaches a lesson to people that it's time to be much more aware of the world around you. Keeping a 'situational awareness' of the economy and events around, and then using your brains and your voice to influence how it affects you, is the only true way control how badly these events hit you.