GM All But Certain To File For Chapter 11

"Banks fail and reopen under new names and that doesn't seem to be much of a problem," Johnson said. "It seems to happen all the time with the airlines and they keep flying."

GM, the century-old American icon that put a V-8 engine in the Chevrolet, was once the symbol of American industry. In 1979, it employed 618,000 Americans, more than any other company. By early this year that figure was just 88,000.

The U.S. government late last year began pouring billions into both troubled automakers, fearing that their failure could push the struggling economy into a full-blown depression.

In the years after World War II, no one would have imagined the collapse of either, but since then there have been so many corporate crises and economic black eyes that people have had time to get used to it, said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who studies American popular culture.

"It really takes optimistic thinking to think that this country is going to ever get back to that place in its manufacturing history," he said. "It's not just automobiles. You look at manufacturing across the country, it's really grim."