Congress has been allowing the financial industry run it's own show for about a decade. President Obama shares responsibility as a former Senator, with all of his colleagues, but not as President until he was inaugurated. He is responsible for appointing the same men who caused the financial crisis to his cabinet. Plenty of blame to go around here! As RD mentioned, AGI shares some of the blame.
The FIRE economy (finance, insurance and real estate) produces nothing except some paper pushing jobs and cannot support us all.