the crash was not a singular event, 9/11 was at the tail end of it but it was crashing for a good 2 years or so from 2000-2002/3 (look at a graph of the NASDAQ from the 90s till today).

Yep. I worked for a small company that had been struggling through the dot-com slowdown. But 9/11 was basically the precipitating event for its final tailspin. I was laid off a week or two later and it continued to spiral down over the next 6-12 months.