Recessions and Depressions are statistical and quantifiable economic descriptors. When most folks say depression or recession they are telling you how they "feel" the economy personally. I myself have done well for the most part as has most of my family, but we saw this coming. A lot didn't or were in economic sectors that left little place to go. We also had the media and Democratic party that talked the recession into a major problem in order to destroy the hated Bush. Now they are trying to pull it out and take the credit. Problem is they don't understand free market economic, or more cynically, want to destroy it.
Recessions are cyclic and tend to happen every 8-10 years, especially at the end of Presidential terms. the problem with this one is we are breaking our free market and the cycle may finally be broken. Free markets ebb and flow like the tide. Socialism slowly drains down hill.