I'd think the UK population are a bit gunshy about privatization after privatisation of British Rail. I'd also think that the US would have learned their lesson by looking an Enron... but since when have facts gotten in the way of a good story?
I'm not sure what you meant by this, can you explain further?
Overall this crisis, imo, was caused by the pro-privatization advocates arguing for deregulation. The wikipedia article addresses this to some extent.