A common misconception (reposted since the other thread was overtaken by trolls)

People seem to think that Bruce Wayne and Batman disappeared from the public eye at the same time and that it's dumb that people didn't immediately figure out Bruce was Batman however that's actually not true. If you listen to Bruce and Miranda Tate at the party you'll hear that Bruce actually did attempt to have a life beyond Batman when he and Miranda were working on the reactor, it wasn't until Bruce read Dr. Paval's research paper and figured out how easily his reactor could be turned into a bomb that was when he hid the reactor, sunk into depression and locked himself inside his mansion. According to Nolan that didn't happen until 4 years after Batman disappeared so no they did not disappear at the same time so that is not an issue with the film.

Another complaint I heard was that Bruce during the 2nd 4 years didn't put the Batsuit on despite being obsessed with being Batman however you have to remember they were in peace time, the cops were busy chasing down overdue library books and there wasn't a need to be Batman. During those 4 years he was waiting and hoping that things would go bad again so he'd have a reason to be Batman once more and when he found out about Bane that was his reason.