After 5 years of IT consulting with Ernst & Young, I think that the whole consulting/accounting industry and its incestuous, almost parasitic, relationship with the economy desperately needs a shakeup exactly like this. These big 5 firms are a monstrous financial cost the healthcare industry in which I worked. There are many reasons that they exist, but I think that providing a valued service is dwarfed by the other reasons like risk sharing, political cover, favor trading, executive incompetence and insecurity.
You could be right, I suppose. I notice that many others on the thread share your view.
I think AA should have been spared the circus in Washington, though, since the Members of Congress expressing their "outrage" and browbeating the hapless stream of AA and Enron execs from the safety of their committee chairs have far from clean hands. Congress basically roasted these guys in order to get at Dubya, but they appear ready to give Global Crossing, a company with stellar Democratic Party connections, a free pass, even though the financial transactions conducted by those bozos are at least as dubious. Has anybody read any scalding news reports on the firm auditing Global Crossing? I don't think so, because to my knowledge none have been written.