Taoiseach Brian Cowen faces his first electoral poll with a three-in-one jab of a popularity test at local, European and by-election level that is really going to hurt.

As it stands in the polls, Cowen and his team will get a hammering – and how bad that bludgeoning turns out to be will determine whether this government can ultimately carry on.

The decisions about what deal is struck with the seemingly all-powerful banks and developers over Nama, about public-sector reform, the introduction of even more tax increases in the form of property and carbon taxes, the announcement of university fees, cynically delayed until after the elections – even decisions about whether or not to cut dole payments – are all looming.

But with each day, doubts multiply about this government's ability to deliver on any or all of its fiscal and political targets because the electorate is now so enraged, it is virtually ungovernable. It's as if we've taken on the mantle, en masse, of that memorable Michael Douglas character in the 1993 film, Falling Down – the nihilistic "man at war with the everyday world" who is "mad as hell and can't take it any more".

As posters go up and candidates begin to canvas, the level of anti-Fianna Fáil anger is beginning to crystallise, with some councillors even forgetting to announce that they are FF members for fear that affiliation with the Soldiers of Destiny could be inflammatory.

The start of the campaign has not been helped by the latest predictions from the Economic and Social Research Institute.
Dr Alan Barrett's super-bad forecasts for mass unemployment and negative "growth" (minus 14% from boom to bust) paint a doomsday scenario.

Dr Barrett estimates that the last budget took between 2.5% and 5% from the middle classes – and that does not count the pay cuts or pension levy most households have already been hit with. It's an unprecedented taxation shift in its magnitude and one that kicks into the first pay packets a week before the 5 June election day, something that won't help the government's prospects.

But if the backdrop gets gloomier by the day, the level of dysfunction in the way it is handled seems to grow proportionately.

Last week's catalogue of political madness over pensions for sitting TDs and debates over the competence of Mary Coughlan (she should go; retaining and creating jobs is too important in this economic climate and her skills lie elsewhere) almost pales into insignificance compared with the national psychosis of the past few days. It was as if every sector asked to make changes and efficiencies went collectively bonkers.

Militant bus drivers don't like new cost-saving schedules agreed between unions and Dublin Bus after months of negotiation so they call a wildcat strike. The net result – a loss of four days' pay for the strikers and a loss of €400,000 for Dublin Bus. Disciplinary action is to be taken, but it will inevitably mean more cutbacks, fewer buses and could well make another fare rise more likely.

While the bus drivers took to the streets to protest, the junior doctors went to court. The HSE has been forced to back off from its bid to save €46m in pay for dubiously generous lunch, training and overtime allowances because they were part of the doctors' contract. In return, junior doctors have agreed to start negotiating a new contract – and, after the five-year fiasco with the consultants, we all know what that means.

While doctors are, of course, saints, this once again underscores just how incapable the management-heavy HSE is of managing. While everyone else has to sign a piece of paper and agree to a pay cut when their employers tell them it's that or nothing, doctors go to the High Court and amid all the legal barminess of an HSE contract, they win. As sure as anything, the HSE will now save the money by closing down front-line services rather than bringing our doctors' pay into line with norms across Europe.

Developers, meanwhile, are now in consultations with their fellow economy-destroyers in the banks to find out if there is any way they can circumvent the long arm of Nama. A group of investors and developers want to retain ownership of €2bn to €3bn of their "good" assets by having the loans on them restructured and moved to overseas banks out of the grip of the new agency, leaving only their "toxic" and unrevivable assets to the taxpayer-funded body to clean up.

That sort of an assault on the logic of Nama has to be faced down, Obama style, as the US president did against the hedge funds and investors who tried to milk the taxpayers for more money in the Chrysler car giant debacle. "I don't stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices," they were told.

There are real fears that developers and banks will find some well-argued legal reason why they should get precedence over the taxpayer under the Nama deal.

It's perfectly understandable that people are "mad as hell and not taking it anymore". But as we get to the point where serious consideration is being given to cutting the unemployment benefit of people who have just lost everything, if a national, truly reforming effort can't be dug from the ruins by this government, then they need to go to the country and get a new mandate.