If trends continue, there will be more people on NHS hospital waiting lists than queuing to go through football turnstiles in the coming years.

You could claim the two areas might not be unconnected as discussing almost any topic connected with the Scottish game requires an understanding of how to stave off depression.

There is no easy therapy to hand. Watching the national side limp fecklessly through 180 minutes of football in the last week destroyed the hope that it could provide some relief from the barren aspects of a club scene which has all the stability suggested by that old roundelay, 10 green bottles standing on the wall.

We sought sanctuary last week from that over-arching and frightening scenario of wondering which club might fall next. Instead, at Hampden and Novi Sad, all we got was a reminder that Scottish football is plumbing new depths. However, casting up the past has to be done with some caution too. Setbacks in the so-called golden era of the game were not uncommon.

The shock and the misery we experienced after the atrocious performance against the Iranians in Argentina in 1978 led us to believe we had sunk to levels to which only Jacques Cousteau in his bathysphere was accustomed. But there was a critical difference: despite the acute sense of humiliation we felt at the time, there was never a feeling that we couldn't resurface again quickly.

Simply put, we had talent. And in that famous demob-happy performance against the Dutch in the following match, Archie Gemmill's famous solo goal epitomised that. Embarrassing though it had been, we took it to be a temporary aberration – and so it proved.

Before and after Argentina, for some years, watching Scotland was an eagerly awaited emotional challenge, with moods certainly swinging between despair and elation, too often for the good of the soul, but always with the sense that the players had the ability to shape something of their own destiny. This is what makes this rut we are in so different.

Now, our national side looks as if it is just shoved around, looking sadly at times as if they are simply being toyed with. That is the worst cut of all. They look as if they have been miniaturised. And, real talent being scarce, the stasis we are in seems to be set for some time to come.

The first stage in any attempt at recuperation is to be entirely honest and transparent about any problems. It would help not to expect too much of Gordon Strachan, who in my view has enough savvy, resilience and communication skills to try to make sense of this, for a support which sometimes fails to see sense.

The Tartan Army's booing of Gareth Bale sounded only like a cry of envy from folk who have been treated to such mediocre fare over the recent years, that insularity has taken over and, crazily, offence is taken at real talent.

Nor would it add up to go craving another manager in a year or two's time, which is not an unlikely response given the circumstances and the fickle nature of supporters.

Perhaps it is too late to acknowledge a brutal fact but it is worth repeating until it truly sinks in. We did not invest in youth development in ways which would have seen a flowering of talent and indulged in too many foreign imports; a trend started by Rangers, mimicked by Celtic and copied by many other clubs as expensive non-entities clogged up the game and stymied youth development.

Parallel with this was the disappearance of the street player, and the sad sight of playing fields lying unused or padlocked. Morning-till-night football virtually disappeared among kids. The couch, the X-box and the Wii replaced wee heedies. The youth went indoors. Recruitment to the game naturally suffered.

It is no real mystery as to why we are suffering now, then. But can we fundamentally change our approach to nurturing players even if we are looking many years down the line, and against the inclinations of a footballing public not noted for its patience? The structural flaws are so deep.

Here is something I wrote in these pages exactly 13 years ago. "So what kind of environment is our potential talent coming from? It is coming from a society which is considered even by Scottish medical opinion as a third-world country with a wholly unacceptable state of public health and a much too prevalent skeletal, self-defeating diet.

"It is a country which is laggardly in its consideration of physical education and allocates it much less time than other countries. Our recreational facilities have certainly improved since the Vikings stopped raiding us but we have so much else to do."

A decade and more later, I suspect that what has happened in this past week might make these words of a decade ago a little more significant. We are hurting. But there are no quick fixes.

Sporting excellence, as I acknowledged more than a decade ago, is based not just on acquiring techniques which were so sadly absent this week in the national side. It is also about lifestyle and attitude, political involvement and proper public spending on facilities. The public's attention ought now to be on reality checks and in being tolerant of the fact that we are in for a very long haul without any guarantee that we will all emerge with smiles on our faces.