Now I agree with you. The bank bailouts were supported by just about every economist with a brain. They worked, not ideally, but well enough, and better than some expected.
But the populist sentiment comes from that the lowest bracket of society is still not out of the recession. The recession is over in the technical meaning, but tell that to the down-and-out and see how they react. It's also not the case that the financial system is totally repaired, though thankfully it looks like the perverse incentives in home mortgages are going away, at least.
Well, GDP growth doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's spread throughout every demographic. Every demographic is consuming more than it's ever consumed (highest GDP). Now, I'm assuming you might mean high unemployment as your main complaint. We have more funds now than we've ever had to subsidize unemployment checks without affecting inflation rates. The unemployment checks are going out to many and are in abundant supply. Contrary to what you might hear, the most disadvantaged brackets are being taken care of.
But the populist sentiment comes from that the lowest bracket of society is still not out of the recession. The recession is over in the technical meaning, but tell that to the down-and-out and see how they react. It's also not the case that the financial system is totally repaired, though thankfully it looks like the perverse incentives in home mortgages are going away, at least.