Regime change in Australia has had a wondrous impact on the conga line of Howardite commentators in the mainstream media.

In the case of Gerard Henderson of The Sydney Morning Herald the transformation has been physical. He’s shrunk. He now has the demeanour of a turnkey at some mediaeval monastry who locks up the prayer-mumblers after dark.

In a photo by-line last week Henderson appeared with a large quiff of brown flaxen hair swept across his brow but when he appeared on ABC TV it was obvious he doesn’t have more hair, but less. Is someone at The Herald air-brushing the pictures to give poor old Hendo a more youthful image as he sinks into helpless morbidity following the downfall of the Coalition along with all its evil works?

Henderson and his so-called Sydney Institute – a motley of old Cold War warriors, Groupers, rabid Zionists and superannuated Liberals – has been disconnected from the ancien regime and therefore from guest speakers and ongoing corporate financial support. If it wasn’t for the extraordinary benevolence of the SMH which continues to give him a platform, the whole show would disintegrate in much the same manner as the old Congress for Cultural Freedom which fell apart under the impact of political events in the 1960s.

The other howling right wingers among Sydney’s ink-slingers are marching forward with their heads held high as if nothing has happened. Miranda “Tilly” Devine continues to dispense her suburban imbecilities to an audience still loyal to the paper but stubbornly unable to read a word she writes or take her seriously.

Over at The Daily Telegraph, Piers Akerman is inconsolable: like Greg Sheridan of The Australian he’s taken the loss of The Great Helmsman personally. Still he soldiers on with bovine determination taking fodder from whatever reactionary source he can find and evacuating it directly into the columns of Rupert’s Sydney tabloid.

Kevin Rudd, like Tony Blair, may turn out to be a disappointing figment of the collective imagination but for the moment it’s most enjoyable watching the Howard propagandists being eased into the wards at the end of the corridor. While The Australian’s Denis Shanahan has been posted to Washington to avoid the Press Gallery’s constant hilarity, the others are stuck at home to face an uncertain future.

Never accepted by their journalistic peers because of their lunar views on politics, religion, justice and society, they have no ideas to contribute to the new era in the nation’s life. Ex-Ministers go onto the backbench: ex-propagandists should be found a place in the backroom.