Q: What changes enacted since then to stave off the possibility of further such events have actually made progress towards that objective?
2. There are a ton of changes that have been made to the financial system since, such as the amount of margin banks are required to hold and reducing lending against toxic instruments. That lending now tends to come from shadow banking institutions and hedge funds.
The changes enacted were ostensibly to reduce the prevalence of 'too big to fail' institutions, to reduce the prevalence of exotic derivatives, and to reduce the prevalence of debt held by giant institutions collateralizing further debt held by giant institutions. Those were the stated objectives that would serve the goal of reducing systemic risk to the financial system. How are those objectives holding up?
Whether pushing the toxic crap out to hedge funds helps the stability of global financial system remains to be seen. Either way you can be assured the worlds governments would just bail the banks out again. The precedent has already been set.
Immediately before the GFC, the FED had plenty of dry powder (such as a 5% federal funds rate as but one example) to deal with such a crisis. Today?
In short, there is no particular reason to think the next financial crisis will tip over the apple cart.
The only out they have, should it hit today, is to inflate the dollar to levels that all but ensure a loss of trust, likely ending in a Venezuelan-style death spiral. Well, either that, or let the owners of the banks take the hit (albeit with associated collateral damage). And we know that's not gonna be the route they take.