just for reference you tried to cherry pick what you personally believed to be one of the worst periods. someone reitring in 1997 with a 4% SWR and not investing ANY NEW MONEY as you were during this time. was sitting on 2.24MM at the end of 2015 with a starting portfolio of 1MM and an inflation adjusted withdrawal of 40k per year. meanwhile the inflation adjusted value of their money was 1.66MM at the end of 2015 ... so if your 401k is flat over this time you've been doing something terribly wrong if you're investing new money.
the actual portfolio only dipped under the inflation adjusted value of the starting portfolio for 2 years in 2008 and 2009 ...
like i said do the math. and figure out what really cost you if your portfolio was flat.
year s&p 500 Inflation Portfolio
1997 33.10% 2.30% $1,277,760.00
1998 28.34% 1.60% $1,587,360.46
1999 20.89% 2.20% $1,869,830.36
2000 -9.03% 3.40% $1,663,796.14
2001 -11.85% 2.80% $1,430,177.46
2002 -21.97% 1.60% $1,083,881.54
2003 28.36% 2.30% $1,339,104.83
2004 10.74% 2.70% $1,437,609.89
2005 4.83% 3.40% $1,463,982.28
2006 15.61% 3.20% $1,644,693.62
2007 5.48% 2.80% $1,691,280.68
2008 -36.55% 3.80% $1,047,026.95
2009 25.94% -0.40% $1,266,335.46
2010 14.82% 1.60% $1,408,262.08
2011 2.10% 3.20% $1,396,342.15
2012 15.89% 2.10% $1,570,381.52
2013 32.15% 1.50% $2,021,289.12
2014 13.52% 1.60% $2,248,478.29
2015 1.56% 1.00% $2,242,280.57