It only really takes a few years. We went through "painful" austerity in Canada. Both at the federal level and provincial level. This left everyone hating the federal finance minister and the premier of the province. In the end, the environment was cleaner, the debt problem was tackled, and everyone had a job. (when you compare the late 90's to the early 90's)

Here's another story about austerity: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-01-20/opinions/35438...

(but yes, it's after a war, so that somehow makes it inexplicably different? People still debate this)