Bimetallism was a monetary system which assumed a fixed ratio between silver and gold without recognizing that market prices in commodities fluctuate. As one rose against the other, Gresham's Law caused distortions. The public blamed hard money, not the bureaucracy. Why?
Same happened with Bretton Woods. Peg fiats to US dollar backed by a fractional gold reserve (Fiats could variate ~2%). Deal is that the dollar itself fluctuates in relation to gold due inflation or trade balance. Same with Smithsonian agreement until turning into floating...
It's even worse than that. The government tried to maintain the pegged value on spite of rampant postwar inflation, and when that failed, the inflation skyrocketed.
Heh, interesting. I gotta tell you in near period occured the "oil crisis" in 1973, which carried stagflation and high interests until the next decade. There wasn't enough supply production for the demand... You can search photos of horses on the streets and big lines for fuel.
The oil crisis was only one small part of the wider economic disconnect from commodities to fiat. But having Arabs as scapegoats is certainly handy for the political class.