Tech/IT is too valuable to be ditched altogether, so we are not going back even to the 80s or 90s. But collapse is appropriate for the kind of lean times ahead: companies getting bought on the cheap, investments evaporating, projects shelved, jobs (or even careers) lost.
It's a way of distancing yourself from the blame. "Mistakes were made" instead of "we made mistakes". Or "a suspect was shot in an officer-involved shooting" instead of "a policeman shot the suspect".
It's the equivalent of saying "shit happens, who knows who's to blame" when we all know who's to blame.
The tech industry culture around the Bay Area has been extremely hostile towards debate and diversity of opinion for the last two decades.
Cuz now it's gone, and all that's left is Big Corporate. Basically NYC but with that California faux niceness. I'll give the New Yorkers this: they'll tell you to eat shit and die on the street to your face, but they don't fake it; they respect others enough to stab you in the front, not in the back.
Too many years of "zero" interest rates has resulted in some warped thinking.