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Enron and the swarm of business scandals around it haven't yet resulted in major new rules for accountants or corporate directors, but they are increasingly reshaping the mind-set in American workplaces.

From water coolers to corner offices, hype is out and skepticism is in. After elevating CEOs to hero status in the 1990s, America is pausing for an economic reality check.

Or many reality checks.

What's significant is not just the magnitude of Enron's collapse into bankruptcy, but also the persistent flow since then of revelations about ethical or financial lapses.

In recent days, for example:

• Newly released documents laid bare efforts by Enron managers to manipulate electricity prices in California.

• Telecom giant WorldCom, admired like Enron as an innovator in its industry, had its debts downgraded to "junk" status.

• The trial of Enron's auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, opened with prosecutors citing other firms where Andersen's audits were found to be flawed.

"When you have a catharsis like this, it leaves the base system different than when it started," says Frank Zarb, former chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, which regulates brokers.

Already, corporations are scrambling to maintain financial credibility (witness the flight of Andersen's clients). A round of investigation, litigation, regulation, and legislation could further alter US business.

"America has some kind of corporate scandal every few years," says Roy Smith, a finance expert at New York University's Stern School of Business. He isn't so sure public interest in the Enron affair will last.

But others liken this scandal to the corporate corruption that led to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 or to the excesses of the 1920s that were followed by the Great Depression and the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory measures.

Enron has "legs," they say, because so many ordinary employees lost jobs or 401(k) retirement money, while executives walked away as millionaires.

The sheer size of the collapse is staggering. Creditors to Enron have lost $50 billion; shareholders another $50 billion.

Enron also grabs public attention because the debacle coincided with an economic slowdown from a record expansion – stock-market bubble and all.

"When you get a downturn ... problems are going to be more noticeable," says Clifford Smith Jr., a professor at the Simon School of Business in Rochester, N.Y.

The reputation of corporate executives has tumbled. A Gallup poll in February found that only 16 percent of those surveyed ranked the honesty and ethical standards of executives as "very high" or "high." It was 25 percent a year earlier.

So far, though, bills in Congress to deal with Enron-revealed weaknesses in the system are relatively mild.

Enron was seen as a factor behind passage of new limits on campaign contributions. But this hasn't dented the clout of corporate lobbyists with the Bush administration or Congress – a key reason, some say, for the modest action in Washington.

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