there is something to the idea that if a company is too big to fail, its too big to exist, and should be broken up.
those megabanks and financial institutions should be broken up, and restricted from activities they allowed to spread into through deregulation.
But that pain you mention also means misery and suffering for large swaths of the public dependent on them. the companies and rich folks can weather that a lot better than regular folks can. in the Great Depression there were two classes of people that were largely unaffected: the very rich, and the very poor. and also in the great depression, that wealth from the loser who did lose everything didn't really spread back out to the public; it was absorbed other powerful entities.
As for the bailed out auto companies, they not only got back on their feet, but returned a profit to the American taxpayer. There is a big difference between the megabanks that were bailed out and the car manufacturers. Chiefly in the number and type of employees they have. keeping them operating meant keeping people employed, people who spend large portions of their income (the more money people make, the less they contribute to the overall economy as a percentage of income) which keeps money moving through the economy, slowing (or even arresting) its collapse, just as the social safety nets do, and for the same reasons.