There's always been problems, as with any imperfect political system, but there have been different problems at different times. The most recent problem resulted in the housing crisis which led to the recession, which, as I understand, was caused by the government and wall street undermining regulatory laws, or in the former case, just undoing pre-existing ones. That hasn't always been around forever, nor has the level of misconduct resulted in a recession of anything close to this magnitude.

As far as protests, I think they are worthy and can serve a purpose. Protest has been shown to be effective before. If OWS had been full of reasonable and fairly seemly people articulating clear goals respectfully and intelligently, it would have been considerably more effective. I know what you mean about your distaste in protest in general, though- the sheer fact that professional protesters exist makes me wary of the motives behind any protest. A lot of times it's just whining.