I thought this article was pretty insightful:

Much like the big 3, IBM also posted historic losses…. in fact their loss of 8 billion was then the largest ever yearly loss in history. They never filed for Chapter 11, but came very close to doing so. If the government had simply stepped in and thrown some cash IBM’s way “in the interests of protecting the American workers” and “saving a national symbol”, it would have lived to see another day. But it would have continued on a doomed path paved by past blunders. And who knows, might have folded up within a decade.

What happened instead was how capitalism should play out, and often does if left alone by the government.