COLUMBO would make short work of it while Miss Marple might have the guilty party bolting for the drawing room door before tea.

But days after an anonymous article in the New York Times claiming to be from a member of the “resistance” working within the Trump administration to thwart the will of the US president, the author remains unmasked.

Whodunnit? Who knows? But the hunt is on for this new Deep Throat, with officials from top to bottom lining up to say it wisnae me, or the DC variety thereof.

(Speaking of political prattle, I was much taken by a phrase used by England's Health Secretary Matt Hancock on the Today programme last Thursday. Pressed several times if he would put more money behind an initiative, the Minister would only concede: “I’m open to a conversation in that space.” So next time the boss asks for the impossible, or the teenager wants another £20 to buy lunch, just tell them you are open to a conversation in that space and walk away.) But I digress. Being unable to stick to the subject is one of many failings of the President according to the blistering portrait that emerges in Bob Woodward’s book, Fear: Trump in the White House. According to sources who spoke to Woodward, one half of the duo that took down Nixon, Mr Trump has the attention span of a goldfish, the temper of a Tasmanian devil, and the political knowledge of an earthworm. Instead of “making America great again”, the first duty of those around Mr Trump appeared to be saving America from its President.

News of Woodward’s book paved the way for that astonishing, even by Trump era standards, NYT piece which attacked the president’s “amorality”, management style, such as it was, and all round alleged unfitness for office.

The Trump response, understandably, began at incandescent and built from there. “TREASON!” he declared on Twitter, later claiming it was all the work of “the Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media”. His enemies had acted, he said, because everything was going so well for him with the economy booming and the Supreme Court shaping up nicely in the right’s favour.

It is notable that both Mr Trump and the mystery author referred to the deep state, with the latter insisting that, “This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state”.

The notion of a secret government within a government is a favourite trope of the Trumpian right. The reasoning goes like this. The deep state, its members drawn from the liberal elite, pulls all the strings. Regardless of who is democratically elected, the deep state is always in charge. If it is not smashed, the real will of the American people can never be enacted.

Though the right in America and elsewhere speak of the deep state with horror, others might be comforted to know that it exists. As the mystery author puts it: “It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

We would all like to think there are adults in the room when the big decisions that affect our lives are made. An adult in the room would make the right choice while you are on the operating table. A few more adults in the room and we might not have had the banking crash. Or Hillary as candidate. Or Brexit. Or Boris within strolling distance of Number Ten. No-one wants there to be adults in the room more than rational adults themselves.

It is hardly democratic, but you can understand how it might appeal. Perhaps the truly terrifying thing, however, is surely not the existence of the deep state but the certain knowledge that there is no such safety net, that we are all at the mercy of events and individuals beyond our ken and control. More chilling still, if there is a mess it is up to us, the ones who likely made it, to clear it up. Nanny’s off shift. Mum and dad are on holiday. L’etat, deep or otherwise, c’est moi.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the mole hunt continues. Regardless of what one might feel about Deep Throat 2’s methods – the president has called their insistence on anonymity “gutless” – and their undermining of an elected President, whoever it is certainly has nerves of chromium.

They seek him here, they seek him there, those friends of Donald seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven, is he in hell? Wherever he or she is, I hope they have a suitcase packed just in case. According to Ed Snowden, Russia’s pretty cold at this time of year.