The fed does have problems associated with it, but it does need to be given a lot of credit for improving the overall stability of our economy. Historically, anyway.
The big problems we have are due to the sub prime issues, and that is traceable mostly to the regulations requiring lenders take on high risk loans. This in combination with the leveraging of dollars from a generally accepted 7 to 1, and increasing that to an insane 30 to 1 (even 50 to 1 in some cases), fueled the bubble. (In other words, when a bank takes in a dollar as a deposit, it can lend that same dollar seven times and still be considered responsible.)