By "Great Financial Crisis," are you referring to the "Great Depression?" You understand that post-WW2 conditions were the best conditions for the average (white) American in history right? I think the conditions you want to look at is Reagan and beyond.

It's ironic actually. You're talking about over-regulation as a fault of economic disparities, but Reaganomics was the beginning of the economic conditions that are present in the US today, and the beginning of what became the political norm for succeeding US governments: cut taxes and increase spending (i.e., deregulate and incur more debt).

I can tell you that deregulation actually correlates with an increase in government spending, because deregulation usually surmounts to cutting taxes to social programs, which exacerbates problems of poverty. To offset the increase in poverty as a result of deregulation, the US government has historically spent more (they borrow in the absence of tax revenue) to deal with the situation. This way, they are able to deregulate and satisfy a majority of Americans, which secures them political power, but sequentially they incur more debt as a result. A homeless man is more expensive on the street than he is if housed (look at Utah).

- Your friendly neighborhood political scientist.