Man of the match: Ryan Harris (5-25)
AUSTRALIA completed a 5-0 whitewash of pitiful England with a 281-run thumping inside three days at the SCG in Sydney.
Michael Clarke's men thus repeated the feat achieved by previous Australian captains Warwick Armstrong in 1920-21 and Ricky Ponting in 2006-07.
But the last six weeks have been particularly difficult to take for England with them having come into the contest with the upper hand after winning four of the past five series.
That it was going to be different this time was not immediately apparent.
England reduced the Aussies to 132-6 on the first day of the first Test in Brisbane but Brad Haddin then staged a recovery to get the hosts 295.
Haddin's batting with the lower order was something which would become a feature of the entire campaign with England, at times, actually getting themselves into good positions with the ball.
However, the other decisive recurrence would be England's inability to cope with the ferocity of Mitchell Johnson fast bowling.
The tail struggled in particular but all too often they were left trying to pick up the pieces of the failures of England's ever-changing and broken top order.
And it is why the results show England getting bowled out for less than 200 on six out of the 10 innings having last made 400 in a Test against New Zealand in March.
Indeed, in Adelaide in the second Test, Alastair Cook's men finished the first innings a massive 398 behind on the way to a 218-run defeat while the performance in Perth was only a smidgen better.
Nevertheless, defeat at the WACA meant that the Ashes had been lost and it was not even Christmas.
Still, though, surely England could restore some pride in Melbourne, as an unbeaten opening partnership between Cook and Michael Carberry took them to 65-0 for a lead of 116.
Alas, no. England then lost three men for one run and also their last five wickets for six runs to collapse to 179 all out on the most humiliating day of the series of all. Australia then knocked off the 231 runs required without breaking sweat.
That, it seemed, was England's best chance gone.
Even then, though, there was even some hope going into this last match with three players on debut - Gary Ballance, Scott Borthwick, and Boyd Rankin - for the first time since Nagpur in India in 2006.
Back then, current captain Cook was one of the starlings, and he helped his new charges here by winning his first toss of the series and electing to bowl on a green-top surface.
England subsequently made early inroads as the Aussies felt the heat at 97-5.
But back again came Haddin, his 75 assisting a Steve Smith's century as Australia made 326 and took the early wicket of Carberry to leave England 8-1 at the close of day one.
Cook (7) resumed on day two but lasted just two balls before padding up to a plumb lbw, and Bell should have then been out first ball but for a badly dropped catch by Shane Watson in the slips.
No matter. Chances were coming along with such frequency for Australia, it was hardly as if there was going to be much of a wait for another one.
Nightwatchman James Anderson made a brave seven runs before edging to Clarke in the slips off Johnson.
And, by the time Peter Siddle accounted for Bell (2) and Ryan Harris for Kevin Pietersen (3), England were 23-5. This humiliating series had produced another chapter.
Thankfully, England went on to scramble past their lowest total (45) against Australia, mainly down to the efforts of Ben Stokes (47) who, as the tourists' only centurion in this campaign, can still hold his head up high.
Ballance also did well to support Stokes for a while, considering he came in at 17-4, while Stuart Broad - England's best bowler Down Under - belatedly showed some form with the bat, hitting 30 not out.
Last man Rankin made 13, still more than Cook, Carberry, Bell and Pietersen combined, as England were bowled out for 155 on the stroke of tea.
By stumps on day two, the Aussie lead was up to 311 despite four successes for the England bowlers - and by lunch on the third day, Chris Rogers was celebrating his second ton of the series to make it an incredible 10-1 in centuries to Australia.
In a moment of high farce in the field, Rogers tickled the ball to third man for three and - thanks to a wild throw from wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow - ended up with seven, a score off one ball equivalent to anything the England top five could muster in their entire innings.
It was just a small, relatively insignificant occurrence in the grand scheme of things - but that moment perfectly summed up exactly where these two teams are right now.
To their credit, the England's bowlers nibbled away at the other end, and even Haddin could only make a relatively paltry 28 before being bowled by debutant Borthwick.
The Durham leg-spinner also ended Rogers' assault with an excellent caught and bowled, and took his third wicket when Harris picked out Carberry at deep midwicket.
Siddle was the last man out, caught behind by Bairstow off Rankin for the Irishman's first Test wicket, and England had a nominal target of 448 runs to win.
Realistically, the only doubtful outcome was whether England still had enough about them to take the match into a fourth day.
Quite appropriately perhaps, the answer was no.
Instead, England were bundled out for 166 in just 31 overs, by far their fastest scoring rate of the series, a team clearly desperate for it all to end.
Harris took the final wicket to spark wild celebrations on Pink Day in Sydney, designated in support of Jane McGrath, the late wife of the legendary Aussie fast-bowler Glenn.
And so, with Harris's efforts, Australia also outscored England in terms of five-wicket hauls - not in as clear-cut a fashion as with the centuries - but still by five to two.
Of course, the most important score is the one overall: 5-0 - a completely deserved triumph for Australia who have now won more individual Ashes Tests since the start of the 2005 series than England.
That is, of course, largely down to the two whitewashes in seven years - and, just as heads rolled in 2007 so should they this time as well.
Incredibly, it might not happen with ECB chief executive David Collier giving his backing to coach Andy Flower even before the series was over.
Yes, the Zimbabwean still has an excellent record with England but it is one which should be cherished and kept, not further besmirched.
All eras come to an end and this one has been sounding the death knell for weeks now. It is time to move on and hopefully away from the cycle of boom and bust.
Just as previous coach Duncan Fletcher enjoyed the boom-times of an unbeaten 2004 followed by a first Ashes win in 2005, Flower can be proud to have overseen three Ashes victories and a historic triumph in India during his tenure.
But Fletcher's bubble burst with the previous Ashes whitewash being followed up by an under-par World Cup performance in which he appeared throughout to be a lame duck - and compatriot Flower now, too, is a busted flush.
The final word, though, must go to the Australians who arrived in England at the start of last summer in a crisis, having changed their coach just two weeks before the series.
Consequently, they lost 3-0 after a terrible start but, even then, they gradually improved.
Back Down Under, with that new coach Darren Lehmann, they have been a totally different beast, and man of the series Johnson has been completely reinvigorated.
Previously a joke figure, Johnson now holds the Ashes record for the most wickets by a left-arm bowler in a series.
So mighty congratulations to Johnson and Australia - what a turnaround! We shall, of course, meet again in 2015 with hopefully a different set-up and a much-changed team.
THE ASHES 2013/14: AUSTRALIA WON 5-0
| 21-24 Nov | FIRST: Australia 295 & 401-7d beat England 136 & 179 by 381 runs | Brisbane |
| 5-9 Dec | SECOND: Australia 570-9d & 132-3d bt England 172 & 312 by 218 runs | Adelaide |
| 13-17 Dec | THIRD: Australia 385 & 369-6d beat England 251 & 353 by 150 runs | Perth |
| 26-29 Dec | FOURTH: Australia 204 & 231-2 beat England 255 & 179 by eight wkts | Melbourne |
| 3-5 Jan | FIFTH: Australia 326 & 276 beat England 155 & 166 by 281 runs | Sydney |
CENTURIES
148 Michael Clarke (Australia), second Test
124 David Warner (Australia), first Test
120 Ben Stokes (England), third Test
119 Chris Rogers (Australia), fifth Test
118 Brad Haddin (Australia), second Test
116 Chris Rogers (Australia), fourth Test
115 Steve Smith (Australia), fifth Test
113 Michael Clarke (Australia), first Test
112 David Warner (Australia), third Test
111 Steve Smith (Australia), third Test
103 Shane Watson (Australia), third Test
FIVE-WICKET HAULS
7-40 Mitchell Johnson (Australia), second Test
6-81 Stuart Broad (England), first Test
6-99 Ben Stokes (England), fifth Test
5-25 Ryan Harris (Australia), fifth Test
5-42 Mitchell Johnson (Australia), first Test
5-50 Nathan Lyon (Australia), fourth Test
5-63 Mitchell Johnson (Australia), fourth Test
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