One way of explaning this is to suggest that many Australians are suffering from the Last Straw syndrome, a condition in which so much stress and anxiety is being experienced that even quite minor upsets can feel like one thing too much.

People who are suffering from the Last Straw syndrome are often puzzled by their own outbreaks of anger ; often feel that the descent into a pit of despair was not really justfied by the event which precipitated it ; often find themselves resolving that they are going to get their lives back under control before they do something drastic or foolish in response to one of those 'last straws'.