For Australia, the nature of the defeat is the most alarming after being completely outplayed by an impressive England side who re-grouped after their Perth loss.
It becomes England’s first successful tour of Australia in 24 years and is a black mark on Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s record.
And his future as Australia captain is now seriously in jeopardy, after three Ashes series failures as skipper.
In fact Ponting may have played his final Ashes Test as Australia skipper as it is expected his finger injury will rule him out of Sydney.
But there’s downplaying England’s achievement after a years of struggle down in Australia.
England captain Andrew Strauss said: “I had hoped we would retain the Ashes, but you know how much hard work is needed. We did a lot of planning for this series and knew what we wanted to do, but it’s another thing going out and doing it.”
Ponting said: “We haven’t deserved to win. We’re disappointed and we’ve been beaten easily - we now can’t win the Ashes and no-one is more disappointed than me. We weren’t good enough, they simply outplayed us.”
There’s no doubt the Aussies have been outplayed by England. Strauss’ leadership has not let England down and his focus continued ahead of the fifth Test as he set his sights next on a series victory.
“We’ve got to keep our feet on the ground because there are many goals that we want to achieve both in this series and into the future,” he said.
“But we’re very excited right now, it’s a special occasion the MCG game and to come out here and retain the Ashes is something that will live long in all our memories.”
Indeed, this kind of mantra was crucial for the English who did not panic after the shock of the WACA defeat, where some suggested the momentum in the series had swung.
Strauss explained: “We had to bounce pretty back pretty hard after Perth and the way the bowlers bowled on the first day was outstanding and put us in a pretty good position to win the Test match.
“We were pretty shocked by what happened in Perth, we weren’t expecting it. All credit to what Australia achieved there, but we knew that if we just went back to what we’ve been doing all tour … it would work for us.
“It was a case of getting back on the horse and restricting Australia, applying pressure with the ball and taking our chances with the bat.”
And it was the same in the first Test after Australia appeared destined for victory at stumps on day three, before England dug in and ground out a draw.
These characteristics haven’t been there before for the English but they shone this series. And you’d back them to produce them in Sydney.
For Australia, it’s a sad time after so much domination. You’d suggest it’s also the time for change.