I think so many questions about “Why did business X operate like this in 10s?” Is answered with that statement.

So much was funded on economic smack high. A few sobered up and a ton bottomed out bad.

Yes, because ZIRP and QE are deflationary policies: they reduce the amount of interest paid by the government.

It didn't hurt that there was also a burgeoning new computing platform that everyone and their grandma was buying into for the first time.