The biggest thing about history is that we know how it ends. Nothing really captures the uncertainty of the moment. By 2000 everyone knew there was going to be a big correction. Few accurately imagined how big. It was like going to the doctors because you knew something was 'a little off' and finding out that you were going to die in three months. Then talking to all your friends and realizing that everyone you knew had the same disease.
Initially many thought it would be similar to the early 90s recession. I.E. A few layoffs with everyone getting hired back again two years later. It wasn't until 2002 that people realized that springtime wasn't coming back.
It wasn't just places like pets.com that crashed. You had every single non-tech company simultaneously scaling back IT initiatives. At the time there was still a large cohort of management types who considered the Internet more of a fad than a new paradigm. These types took full advantage of the shifting winds to cut deeply into anything tech related. This broad overcorrection did a massive amount of damage to the industry. It's not just that your project was dead, but no one would even be there to bury it.
The impact crater was still visible years later. Remember the big talent shortages during 2008-2012? That's because you no longer had a cohort of mid career professionals to draw from. Only the thin number of people who survived the collapse and a bunch of novices who were just getting started. Everyone was missing that valuable group of mid career 8-12 years of experience etc... Basically a generation of careers strangled. Which is why you'll often see no sympathy for the 'talent shortage' complaint. Five years after cutting everything and leaving people to starve you have the same cohort of managers demanding to know "where are all the people with five years of recent experience, and why don't they work for peanuts like they used to?"
The silver lining is that the bubble bursting shook off the con-artists and pretenders. The dotcom boom was driven mostly by piles of dumb money chasing anyone who could spell the word 'software'. There was a very specific feeling of dilution during the run up. Dealing with companies and teams that contained no competence of any kind. Just lots of people with grand plans. Remember that this was 5+ years before the 'fizz buzz' test became a thing.
During the boom, being a skilled professional felt like you were a hunted animal rather than a valued team member. Everyone had to get in on this 'internet thing' and they would desperately try to latch on. Imagine working in a company of 500, and only two or three actual programmers. Everyone else has 40hrs a week to hassle you for help with whatever their project is while kissing up to management. Think of a tech conference that is entirely shiny salesmen, business types and politics. Tons of fancy titles with no ability to execute. An impenetrable crowd of people trying to suck up time and gain influence. Those types disappeared first.