NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Enron wasn't the only corporate scandal to surface during the stock market's multiyear slide. Nor was its fraud the largest.

But a year after Enron filed for bankruptcy, no corporate collapse has so captivated the public and forced a harder look at everything from campaign finance to corporate governance and the business of accounting.

That the seventh biggest company by revenue, a company that had Washington's ear, Wall Street's heart and naming rights to a Major League Baseball stadium, could mask its problems from so many for so long challenged the assumptions that built the 1990s bull market.

"Enron was the triggering event that showed everyone how big our problems were with regard to oversight," said Art Berkowitz, the author of "Enron: A Professional's Guide to the Events, Ethical Issues, and Proposed Reforms." "I don't think it's even close to being over."

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Looking back, the timing of Enron's bankruptcy a year ago Monday seems crucial to its impact. Enron, the first in a series of corporate deceptions, collapsed just as the country appeared to be healing its financial wounds.

Late last year, investors were on the way to unwinding the excesses of the technology boom. The stock market at the time was enjoying a powerful comeback from the three-year lows that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index, in the midst of an 18 percent two-month rally when Enron went bankrupt, is down 18 percent since the company's filing in United States Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Enron's story is well-documented. A series of off-balance sheet partnerships beginning in 1997 allowed the energy trader to keep half a billion dollars in debt off its books. After restating its earnings by $580 million, Enron on Dec. 2, 2001, filed a $63.3 billion bankruptcy that forced thousands of job cuts at the Houston-based company and made a battered stock worthless.

Investors, trying to ferret out the "next Enron," went on to punish General Electric (GE: Research, Estimates) and Tyco International (TYC: Research, Estimates), market darlings with complex accounting.

But it took WorldCom to top Enron with a July 2002 bankruptcy twice Enron's size and overstated results that topped $9 billion. Still, as a cultural curiosity, WorldCom is no Enron.

Amazon.com sells 54 books or CD-ROMs on Enron and only 19 on WorldCom. And eBay is littered with 268 pieces of Enron memorabilia including mugs, pens and stocks certificates offered for around $9 a piece. Meanwhile, eBay lists 48 WorldCom items.

"Enron seems to have achieved primacy because it has all the earmarks of classic tragic drama, in which hubris causes the fall of the mighty," wrote Houston Chronicle reporter David Ivanovich. "And people have always relished the spectacle of the powerful crashing to Earth."

Issues raised by Enron weren't new. For years, critics questioned the independence of Wall Street analysts whose bosses did investment banking business with companies the analysts covered.

On the first anniversary of Enron's bankruptcy filing, Jen Rogers takes a look at the lasting effect of one of the biggest bankruptcies ever. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Many already doubted the impartiality of accountants whose employers earned consulting fees from companies whose books the accountants signed off on. And most wondered if politicians could fairly regulate companies that funded their campaigns.

But Enron made these issues less academic by spotlighting the failures of a phalanx of whistle-blowers.

"They all had conflicts of interests," said Tyson Slocum, research director for watchdog group Public Citizen. "You had a complete breakdown of checks and balances."

Still, the rise of Enron, whose shares once fetched more than $80 and now go for about 11 cents following delisting by the New York Stock Exchange, could not have happened if warning signs weren't ignored by investors.

Kenneth Lay

Fortune magazine reporter Bethany McLean cast doubts about Enron's success well before its collapse. James Chanos, head of New York-based investment firm Kynikos Associates, was publicly shorting the energy trader early on.

But many appeared more inclined to listen to Kenneth Lay, Enron's former chairman, who on Aug. 21, 2001, said that "our business is extremely strong, and our growth prospects have never been better."

Enron gave plenty of money to political campaigns. Nearly $6 million in hard and soft money to federal candidates and parties, according to The Daily Enron, one of many Web sites devoted to chronicling the scandal.

Outrage over Enron's subsequent influence in deregulating the energy markets may have led President Bush earlier this year to sign into law the most significant changes to campaign finance laws in a generation.

The Justice Department got involved. It won its case against Enron auditor Arthur Andersen, which was convicted of obstructing justice.

Andrew Fastow

Andrew Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, was hit with a 78-count indictment in early November accusing him of deceiving investors by making the dying company appear financially sound. In August, former Enron executive Michael Kopper pled guilty to fraud charges and agreed to help investigators.

Congress has also been busy, crafting the Sarbanes-Oxley bill that Bush signed into law. Among other things, the legislation created an accounting board to police the industry. For its part, the Securities and Exchange Commission required CEOs at more than 700 companies to swear by the accuracy of their financial statements.

Many things never happened. While other energy companies like Dynegy (DYN: Research, Estimates), Reliant Resources (RRI: Research, Estimates) andDuke Energy (DUK: Research, Estimates) ran into problems, and as Adelphia Communications went bankrupt under a crushing debt and allegations that its founder looted the company, only a handful of companies have restated massive amounts of money.

The Bush Administration has apparently suffered no lasting damage from its Enron ties.

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And investor confidence may be on the mend. After hitting new multiyear lows in October, the Dow Jones industrial average notched its eighth straight winning week on Friday .

But for all the post Enron-changes meant to prevent and detect financial fraud, something similar could still happen again, said Art Berkowitz, the Enron author.

"No matter what you do, there are human beings who are going to stretch the rules," Berkowitz said.