No tears here. America started going astray when the general public ceased thinking of houses as places to live and started thinking of them as investments.
There always have been, and always will be, a small percentage of people who are true RE investors, buy low, repair, sell high or rent for a while, or become landlords for years.
When Joe Schmoe who works in IT at Joe Blow Microsystems starts flipping houses, then there's an issue.