Did We Simply Imagine This?

The thought has occurred to me, and I imagine there are a number of others also wrestling with it.

Is all that we have just experienced over the past 20 months simply an existential crisis of confidence that led to a liquidity crisis, which begat a financial market implosion, which led to panicked firings and a related economic cliff dive?

In other words did we simply imagine this and all will return to normal?

Even if we did just imagine it, it is hard to believe that we will simply return to normal. The reason is because we now have to deal with the consequences of the reaction to the crisis, ie. decline in wealth, lost jobs, heightened insecurity, massive govt interventions in markets and economy.