Having been there in 2008 (but not 2001) I will say that 2008 did hit developers a little bit: a number of companies (including big ones like Google) had hiring freezes for about 6 months, and investment dried up starting in early 2008 and lasting until nearly the end of 2008. It looked scary for a little bit, even for developers. (Though of course nothing like the rest of the country.)
Starting in late 2008 it was all rainbows and ponies again.
Starting in late 2008 it was all rainbows and ponies again.