corporations gutting u.s. government

i read concerning the enron scandal that the big wigs employed creative acounting to effectively gut the company of funds continuously till eventually it was unable to float. this also seems to be what has occurred in ford and gm. is this the way big companies now operate across the board, and are the politicians and their friends gutting the american reserves so fast that the american gov't will end up owing more than it is worth and fold up? where will that leave it's citizens and the other people in the world who rely on america's economy to keep their own jobs and worth?

(maybe i've over-simplified, i'm sure someone will point this out to me.)

rick