It has never been any different. The common theme through all recorded history is that governments - no matter how they are constructed - get into debt.
I can't help but wonder where exactly were the mythological "bond vigilantes" in those decades during which they have been overspending like jackasses.
Well they actually weren't; Spain's gov't was running a surplus - it was the overheated housing market that did them in, and while that was happening the rest of the Spanish private economy was getting murdered as the exchange rate was no longer pricing the actual competitive position of Spain properly, killing their exporters while at the same time allowing imports to be priced as if the country didn't need a devaluation, which it desperately did in order to keep its industry in place. Too late for that now, of course. Spain's fate is going to be to be the Florida of Europe, with the same real estate booms and busts Florida suffers from all the time, if they choose to stay in the euro, which as of now looks like what they prefer. Watching this trainwreck called the euro from the US is like watching someone deliberately hit their head against a wall because they like it. The only thing that will stop them is when they collapse in a heap from exhaustion from the effort.