Public attitudes to social partnership and standards in public life have been taken for granted since partnership began and standards came to be questioned.
The conventional wisdom is that everyone recognises the value of partnership and accepts that low standards are a thing of the past for which no one can now be held responsible.
The latest Irish Times/MRBI poll shows how unwise conventional wisdom can be.
The value of partnership, like the existence of prosperity, is not in doubt. But significant segments of the electorate are convinced that the benefits of partnership, like those of prosperity, are unevenly spread.
Prosperity and partnership, they say, may be good for the State; they don't help everyone and they don't reduce divisions between rich and poor.
As for growing dissatisfaction with the Government - many say it arises from what Jack Jones of MRBI delicately calls "dishonesty in politics, scandals and the performances of certain named individuals".
The delicacy is unnecessary. The Flood and Moriarty tribunals are still in session. A charge of obstruction against Charles Haughey is due to be heard in the spring.
And we are regularly reminded of allegations against Michael Lowry, Ray Burke and Padraig Flynn.
This week two other cases are in the limelight. Liz O'Donnell is supporting demands for John Ellis's resignation as chairman of the Dail Committee on Agriculture and the Marine. Haughey helped Ellis with about £25,000 from his leadership allowance; and National Irish Bank allowed a write-off amounting to £240,000 to avoid bankruptcy.
Ellis, claiming his company was responsible for his widespread indebtedness, apologised for the mess, but stopped short of repaying farmers outside his constituency.
On Thursday, Pat Rabbitte, prompted by a Prime Time programme, returned to the case of Emerald Meats, whose beef import quotas were taken over by rivals, including the Goodman group, on the strength of a list prepared for the EU by the Department of Agriculture.
Rabbitte told the Dail this was "a case of conspiracy between the Department, Goodman and others to steal from a rival".
Emerald's action against the Department had been "comprehensively vindicated on all counts" in the courts.
Such issues serve to revive memories of the scandalous past and raise demands, not only from the Opposition, for the clean break that Bertie Ahern promised when he arrived in office.
Ahern is still the most popular leader in the State, thanks largely to the loyalty of nine in every 10 Fianna Fail supporters and the two-thirds among them satisfied with the Government.
However, nearly two-thirds of those who support the PDs are dissatisfied with the coalition; and, in the context of concern over standards, as raised by Des O'Malley or Liz O'Donnell, that's an ominous finding.
So is the doubt, clearly articulated in the Irish Times/MRBI poll, about the value of prosperity and the rewards of partnership.
Partnership is popular with almost all leaders of opinion. The political parties are for it. Economists by and large approve the theory; employers enjoy the practice. Partnership is credited with a huge contribution to prosperity. It ensures industrial stability and makes it easier to plan the State's social and economic affairs.
Advisory bodies like the National Economic and Social Council recommend it. And on Thursday the ICTU voted to enter discussions with the other social partners - employers, farmers, Government and voluntary organisations - on what many expect to be a more advanced version of the agreement now drawing to a close.
But, while partnership contributes to prosperity, to what extent is prosperity shared by the citizens? And is the result a reduction in the gap between rich and poor?
The answers give an added dimension to the findings of dissatisfaction with the Government and may help to explain the turnout in the Dublin South-Central by-election - a poor reflection on parties of all shades.
The Republic is more prosperous than it was five years ago: three-quarters of those questioned say so. But 15 per cent say they are less well off than they were and more than 40 per cent - most notably the over-50s, workers, women and farmers - say nothing has changed for them.
And while three-quarters consider partnership important, only one in five believes it has helped to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Over 40 per cent say it has made no difference and over 30 per cent say it has increased the gap.
This finding is supported by the importance attached to improved public services when people were asked about the way funds should be allocated in the Budget.
Given a range of options that included infrastructural development, reducing rates of income tax (high and low) and speeding up payment of the national debt, half of the respondents chose improved public services first.
Only 15 per cent placed infrastructural development or reduced income tax first and paying off the national debt was the first choice of fewer than 10 per cent.
Given the level of dissatisfaction with the Government and the feeling that prosperity has not been widely shared and the criticism of scandals, greater volatility in voting intentions might have been expected.
But movements in party support of late have been relatively small, though there was more significant change at the beginning of the year: by February Fianna Fail's core vote had dropped 10 points from the high ground held during 1998, within a whisker of 50 per cent.
(When an undecided 13 per cent was discarded Fianna Fail's adjusted vote reached the mid-50s, little short of the dizzy heights achieved in 1977.)
But since February only the satisfaction levels have changed. Fiann Fail's core vote stands at 38 per cent, its adjusted vote at 47 per cent when the undecided one-in-five have been removed from the tallies.
The reason for the absence of significant change is that the Opposition has not managed to convert dissatisfaction with the Government into support for its opponents.
Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party, Sinn Fein, the Workers' Party, Socialists and Independents have so far failed to take advantage of the Government's difficulties.
Fianna Fail managers and their allies have succeeded in getting the message across that all parties ought to be tarred with the same brush. The pathetic attempt to equate Woodchester's agreement to write off a Labour loan of £28,000 with some blatant misuse of public or party funds for personal gain is a case in point.
Labour's proposal of a series of constitutional changes to recognise the social and economic rights of citizens is a step in the right direction.
So is Fine Gael's plan for the nation which sets out key national tasks and is described as a vision for the quality of life to which Irish people should aspire.
Both documents are impressive - more impressive than the coalition's review. In the context of today's poll the case for action by the Opposition parties is urgent.