There are two main schools of thought around how to handle economic volatility. Free market, where companies and individuals are responsible for saving during the good times, so they can survive the bad. Keynesian, where the government is responsible for using policy to mitigate economic swings.
Recently US economic policy has been a combination of both. In periods of recession taking a Keynesian approach and increasing government spending, while lowering tax and interest rates to stimulate the economy. Then, in periods of growth, taking a free market approach and leaving its policies the same and failing to mitigate the upswing.At the core of both free market and Keynesian theories is the assignment of responsibility for mitigating economic swings.
Mixing these two schools of thought means that corporations have the expectation set that they do not need to take responsibility, but the government no longer has the same ability to stimulate the economy because it has not replenished its economic influence.
This is a recipe for exacerbating instead of mitigating economic swings.