Do this generation's female journalists lack talent?

But what of those - the vast majority - who aren't on the hook, or at least shouldn't be? What if commentators like Barker who flout political correctness are offering vital bigger picture insights? Doesn't Australia society have to account for where it is before we can successfully work out where to go, and how?

As demonstrated by Trioli, the truth is mere collateral damage, someone else's responsibility to uphold. There are no subtleties here, no complexities of the human condition. Absent a cultural desire to see through to some deeper truth, there is no need to justify the illiberal liberalism, even when it violates stated values, such as diversity and freedom of speech. Political power is an end in itself. Sit down, shut up and let it realise the Utopian vision we all supposedly subscribe to.

A crucial irony is lost upon our governing elite and the media who attempt to keep it honest.

The outcomes expected by Brockie and Trioli, while admirable, are utterly beyond the political system they privilege and cherish. Scorn and threats cannot go all the way when it comes to men treating women fairly. Tolerance can't be legislated for. Nothing of true value can.

Moreover, there comes a point in the development of society where past achievements are placed in jeopardy by a cowardly failure to accept the limitations of democracy to solve our social problems and shared policy challenges.

This is a diabolical source of frustration for those of us standing on the outside looking in at the pettiness, blame-shifting and moral confusion. The burgeoning government machine and its gaggle of hangers-on from across the whole media spectrum are now so defined by the impossible promises of politics they can't bring themselves to acknowledge such a sobering truth.

Yet any external effort to bring about required change is immediately compromised by the fact it is motivated by the same flawed political ambition. To fix the game, one must play the game. And once you're playing, the game is all that matters.

And so on we go with the posturing and puerile debate, combatants, left and right, less and less willing to see through to the truth. Pfft, indeed.