These low and negative rates are a direct consequence of the decline in the equilibrium rate. If that rate were higher, so would our interest rate settings. Failing to follow the move lower in the equilibrium rate would have created the risk of remaining trapped in a low growth, low inflation equilibrium or even of falling in a deflationary spiral.
We took a brief but very large housing downturn at a time when the world economy was still doing acceptably well, and then got the benefit of an upswing in housing as the world slowed. The timing of this was not, of course, something over which we had any control.