Within the next three years, we will step beyond a government monopoly in spaceflight towards a public/private partnership: NASA financing and commercial contracts with lean operators. Not an ideal outcome but a stepping stone, one hopes, to the privatisation of the space industry. An article from space.com gave some ideas on the development of the semi-national industry (entrepreneurial investments/government contracts).
Phase I: Beyond Powerpoint presentations...
Phase II: Successful launch trials (in 2011), with development and demonstration
Phase III: Profitable contracts from government and private sector customers
Phase IV: Sustainable industry with little or no reliance on government expenditure
I am sceptical about Phase IV: since the seeds of a nascent space-industrial complex are gradually being sown due to the limitations of deficit financing.