This was certainly the pattern in the 1970s and 1980s, although we made a big step forward in the 1994 tightening as I emphasised in my recent lecture. On this occasion, I would maintain that the tightening was neither delayed nor abrupt, and it certainly took few people by surprise.
This is to avoid the one way traffic of paying out enormous rewards once the transaction has been completed while the responsible staff would come out unscathed when the deal turns sour later. To avoid another financial tsunami, a financial institution should adopt a check and balance approach in management. In the heyday, deal makers in a financial institution are the golden boys.