As a brief calm follows the political storms of last week, the electorate might have hoped that the breathing space would allow the government to reflect on the mistakes it has made and what it can learn.

But if anything, quite the opposite has happened. For this government, it is business as usual – ranks have closed and, as everyone from Dermot Ahern to Mary Hanafin showed in interviews after Willie O'Dea's resignation, any platitude will do rather than admit that their colleague's behaviour and their defence of it has badly undermined the high standards public office demands.

The only contribution from the former defence minister has been to clarify that he resigned only when the Greens threatened to collapse the government if he did not go – a direct contradiction to the cosy spin put out by Brian Cowen that he went of his own accord to avoid becoming a "diversion". That he can admit he was pushed and did not jump, without even realising that this further undermines his honour, says everything about the former minister's complete lack of insight into what he has done.

Within a day of O'Dea's resignation, the political establishment was showing equal disregard for lessons that might be learned. The gossip was about much more important matters than ethics or standards or principles. They were taking bets on who might succeed the former minister.

Clare TD Tony Killeen has already been established as the two-to-one favourite by bookmakers Paddy Power. Geography favours his elevation. He's from Co Clare, and under Brian Cowen's meritocracy, representing a constituency west of the Shannon is deemed ample qualification for holding senior office.

There is talk of the "glue" of "trust" between coalition partners being restored so that "the important business" of government can continue. Post mortems within government circles haven't been about Willie O'Dea's cavalier attitude to statements made on oath which are relied on by the highest courts of the land – or the scurrilous nature of the slur that the former minister perpetrated in the first place.

Nor has there been the slightest discomfiture that our Taoiseach, our finance minister, our current justice minister and our foreign affairs minister all shouted down the very substantial concerns being expressed in and around the Dáil about O'Dea's behaviour.

The only navel-gazing seems to be about how Fianna Fáil party managers and the government spin doctors could have taken their eye off the game so badly that they allowed such a loose cannon as a minister's admission that he lied on oath, after he smeared a political rival at election time, using gossip gleaned from a garda pal, to run un-spun and unmanaged for so long.

Few, if any, questions have been asked about O'Dea's original smear, a smear that the Taoiseach himself excused on the grounds that it was in the heat of replying to Sinn Féin claims – correct as it turns out – that the Limerick minister employed six civil servants on constituency business at taxpayers' expense and that he had used departmental postage for personal political work.

Fachtna Murphy, the garda commissioner, said there may be an inquiry into what garda was involved in passing on information to the minister, but the commissioner was hesitant to get involved in a "political" matter. Few expect that inquiry to go anywhere.

There seems to be no move to investigate whether a prosecution for perjury should take place, although Green Party member Gary Fitzgerald has made a complaint. Nor is there to be an investigation into whether O'Dea broke the electoral abuse legislation – something for which there seems to be prima facie evidence in the form of the nasty, gossipy, sneering voice of the minister himself heard across the national airwaves as the Limerick Chronicle tape was played over and over again.

It is true that O'Dea has paid a heavy price: he has lost his prized ministerial position and the status and local clout he clearly enjoyed on a personal level. He also paid a hefty amount in damages to Maurice Quinlivan for slandering him.

But should this excuse the legal machinery of the state from mounting a thorough investigation of what happened and taking appropriate action afterwards? Does the fact that no meaningful investigation is likely to take place show that holders of high office are above the law?

The loss of trust that happened last week had nothing to do with the bonds that tie the principle-free zone that is the Fianna Fáil party with the power-at-any-cost Greens.

The O'Dea debacle is all about the loss of trust between this government and the people who elected its members into power.

Batt O'Keeffe memorably slapped Green TD Paul Gogarty on the back as they walked together through the lobby to vote confidence in Willie O'Dea last Wednesday night. Sometimes in politics, O'Keeffe seemed to gesture, you've just got to swallow your principles for the sake of the bigger picture.

One wonders how O'Keeffe would receive a similar gesture of "solidarity" from Gogarty now that O'Dea has been forced to resign and Fianna Fáil have had to swallow their medicine.

There is a solidarity between Fianna Fáil and the Greens now, but it has nothing to do with the emotion that makes you swell your chest with pride.