No doubt. One common thread during the Cold War was the US's whole-hearted support for authoritarian rulers for fear that anything less would drive them into the arms of the Soviets.
The best-case scenario would have been for the US to pressure the Shah into reform, to engineer a soft landing in the form of a constitutional monarchy. Was that a realistic goal? I don't know, and it's too easy to play Monday-Morning quarterback. But I've seen little evidence that it was seriously attempted.
I agree. What is happening now has little to do with the fate of the Shah, our complicity in his exile, or what may have been done differently. At the time I was horrified at Carter's actions in Iran, Panama, Rhodesia and South Africa. Carter and Clinton are hands down my favorite nominees for traitor of the century in both the 20th and the 21st.