I can’t think of another time when the rules that were carved in stone no longer applied to such an extent.

Equally, there has never been a time when Australians have been so accepting of the changes.

It’s hard to know whether Australians are being responsible and accepting that changes have to occur to get through this or if they never really held these things as dearly as we thought.

The stark comparison with America is obvious. New York’s Governor ranted about an act of war when President Trump suggested closing state borders. In Australia it just happened and there wasn’t even a question about whether it was constitutional or not.

Even a month ago I would have bet against a Liberal Government jumping on the Keynes bandwagon and pump-priming the economy.

After brutally slamming the door shut on social welfare for years it began showering people with money, threw away means testing and gave sacked workers money for doing nothing.

Whitlam would have enjoyed the irony.

Not only that, but after making a virtue of its tough stand on border control and turning back the boats, it allowed in one boat that ended up spreading COVID-19 like confetti.

Amid the news cycle which is now counted in minutes the public may have missed that the union movement joined forces with employers to call for a wage subsidy and then they did it again to keep the mining industry going.

And then ASIC allowed “low doc’’ equity raising to allow companies that had their share trading suspended in the past 12 months to go to the market to get money.

Then the ACCC started waiving its competition rules and allowed companies that were in competition to co-operate in the market. The first C in its name stands for “competition”.

And not just any companies, but the banks, the very institutions that were just excoriated in a Royal commission for their poor behaviour.

I can imagine the meeting where the ACCC bureaucrats tried to get their head around that one.

Outside the economy in the real world the Army is walking down the streets with police to monitor people who have been told they can’t leave their house. Fishing with your mates is no longer acceptable. Sport has been all-but outlawed. Pubs are shut, gambling has come to a standstill. Entertainment is limited to jigsaw puzzles.

Yes, there was anger about the pubs and sport, but not much.

Crossing borders is not allowed. The joke of the Bjelke-Petersen era that NSW residents would need a permit to get into Queensland is real.

Rigid workplace rules just evaporated.

There was a time when working from home would have meant a visit from the HR team to ensure your lounge room desk conformed with all legal requirements so the employer didn’t get his arse sued off when you fell asleep at your desk and split your head on the floor.

Gone. Some people are not even getting out of their pyjamas to go to work.

And then we had people complaining about being locked in a five star hotel for two weeks. A few months ago that would have been called a honeymoon.

After that, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there were no more house parties, it was not the time to have fun and has told tourists to go home, they’re not wanted.

Our basic freedoms and the things we have held dear have been swiftly taken away. It gives rise to a very serious question about how easily our society would yield to these moves if they had a real political intent, rather than being a temporary necessity.

There will be companies and governments that will make sure that a good crisis is not wasted. Australians have to make sure they don’t get away with it.