Actually it's the republicans and the rise of right wing conservatism that did that. Reagan did nothing but spend money that the country didn't have and it basically set the prescedent for every other president (except clinton, who understood that you need to actually have money before you can spend it) to do exactly the same thing.
Thats right. FDR and Wilson (among others) didn't spend money. They spent magic fairy dust!
They balanced their budgets over the economic cycle. Reagan and Bush were both unusual in that they borrowed when times were good.