> The short of it... did CEOs really make any significant mistakes? Or did they just take advantage of the market conditions in predictable ways? i.e. They did their jobs as it's currently incentivized.

Agreed with your argument, and taking it a step further, not only did they take advantage of the market conditions, they were forced to do so or face getting fired themselves. When your competitor is rapidly expanding, and/or you are not showing the revenue growth that the market is awarding, you get the boot.