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Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Ian Botham have blasted the team's extraordinary surrender of the Ashes to a dominant Australian unit.
The fallout was never going to be pretty and England legends are already laying the boots in.
Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Ian Botham are both "embarrassed" by Australia securing the Ashes in record time.
The triumph is the quickest any team has sealed the urn in Australia in Ashes history.
England's breakthrough 3-1 series win in 2010-11 remains the outlier in a 30-year period of dire tours down under.
But the class of 2021-22 is arguably the worst and there could be further pain to come.
Australia's 2006-07 unit was possibly the greatest Test team ever and was hell-bent on revenge after surrendering the Ashes in 2005.
The 2013-14 series will be forever known as Mitchell Johnson's Ashes, and at least there were periods where England looked dangerous.
Another 5-0 result here would comfortably trump those previous whitewashes for ignominy.
"It's not easy in these times, the England side didn't have a great preparation but if you want to look for excuses, you can," Vaughan told Fox Cricket.
"For some time now, this Test match team has not been good enough.
"They've not focused enough on the Test match team, the focus has been more on white-ball cricket - and it delivered a World Cup (win in 2019).
"But we're not a good enough cricketing nation to take our eye off the ball in Test cricket and expect to arrive and play (in Australia).
"I would say with the group that I've seen and the way they're playing, I'd be amazed if (Australia) don't beat England in English conditions in 2023.
"I honestly don't think our system allows young players to develop and give themselves a chance of playing at this level.
"England are a long way short and it could take some even worse times - (Stuart) Broad and (Jimmy) Anderson are going to retire soon - before it gets better."
Botham was equally as confused by the capitulation.
"I'm a little embarrassed," the legendary allrounder told the Seven Network.
"To lose the Ashes in 12 days, I don't know if that's the fastest, but it's got to be very close to it.
"I just think that England have lost their way.
"The performance today summed it up for me, I think you've got enough time to get a couple of players in from the Lions tour because we need to freshen it up, at the moment it's stagnating."
