The 2009 bailouts weren’t of the companies or their management. Shareholders were wiped out, and the internal divisions were sold off for parts (somewhat famously, GMAC, the financing arm of GM, became independent as Ally Bank).

The bailouts were to make the newly reorganized entities actually make good on warranties with customers and the collective bargaining agreements with their workers.

That’s how bailouts are supposed to work. Save the other side of the transaction from the failures of the deadbeat company, and then wipe out the actual owners.