Revolutions have broken out, palaces stormed and coups de grace mounted for less than this. Early this morning, Australia will lose by an innings for the third time this summer, which is unprecedented in a mostly proud cricketing history. It is a capitulation as feeble and abject as can be imagined. The cricket community has a right to be angry. Whether or not Australians place too much store by sporting success, they at least expect to be represented by honest effort. Now heads must roll.

An already wide gulf between the teams has become a chasm, impossible to bridge within even two Ashes cycles. The cycle is a distraction anyway, since England are not even one of the two best teams in the world. Overnight, the top two finished doing battle royale in South Africa. Australia's next three Test series, in order, are against Sri Lanka, South Africa and India. It is shaping as a bleak year. It is shaping as a bleak era.

How to annotate a slaughter? It could be noting that from an already unassailable position yesterday morning, England's last three wickets added 156 and Australia lost their entire top order recovering those runs. It could be by recording that England's 644 was their highest score in Australia, and Matt Prior crashed a 109-ball century, the fastest for England since Ian Botham in the astonishing 1981 series. It was a rollicking innings, but also a footnote. Prior is the wicketkeeper, and in this innings was batting at No 8.

It ought to be by acknowledging England's mastery in all aspects of the game: thinking, planning, batting, bowling, fielding. Of these, the last is both incidental and instructive. Batting and bowling form is elusive, but fielding is a skill that can be improved by dedicated and relentless practice. England's superiority suggests Australia have not worked as hard as they say they have and think they have. The next time an Australian cricketer or coach says he has been working hard, as if that explains and absolves everything, Australians should let out a collective scream.

Other aspects of Australia's cricket betray scrambled brains. Not one England batsman has been run out in this series. Four Australians have, three of them openers. Yesterday's unravelling began with a farcical piece of cricket. Phillip Hughes played a ball to leg. One run was certain, two a matter of negotiation between him and Shane Watson, basic batsmen's business.