If technology stocks drop, the index funds will fall in tandem. During the 1990's, many critics of indexing used the growing weight of tech stocks within index funds as evidence of its riskiness, often times by a value-oriented equity manager. The insinuation was that some sort of active strategy was superior. Which area of the market will produce superior results, value or growth, large cap or small, can only be determined in hindsight. Looking back on 2000, value stocks were far superior to growth stocks, but many articles published at the beginning of 2000 questioning whether value stocks would ever make a comeback.
Growth stocks tend to be more aggressive and value stocks tend to be more defensive.
In periods of economic weakness, value stocks will outperform. If active managers had any particular skill in predicting the market's future, index funds would not outperform so consistently, and would not be so popular. If financials were to suffer through a severe bear market, value managers would struggle against the index. Indices were created as benchmarks for active managers, and therefore they simply reflect the market the managers track. In fact, when active managers are said to be over or under weighting a particular sector, it usually means they have a greater or lesser exposure than their benchmark index.