Federal budget 2017: The next boom is under way – before another bust

But that challenge is a couple of elections away. In the meantime, the infrastructure spend is particularly set to carry the NSW and Victorian economies higher, reinforcing the new "two-speed" economy. 

The increasingly wild swings of the cycle also demonstrate the failed opportunity of a more rational approach to infrastructure investment. We're not gaining as much from the stimulus as we could.

In a landmark speech after Joe Hockey's 2015 budget, the RBA's then-governor, Glenn Stevens, set out the case for better planning of our infrastructure spending beyond the reach of political pork barrelling, the case the RBA continues to push. 

Said Stevens: "As often remarked, infrastructure spending has a role to play in sustaining growth and also in generating confidence. I am doubtful of our capacity to deploy this sort of spending as a short-term counter-cyclical device. The evidence of history is that it takes too long to start and then too long to stop. 

"But it would be confidence-enhancing if there was an agreed story about a long-term pipeline of infrastructure projects, surrounded by appropriate governance on project selection, risk-sharing between public and private sectors at varying stages of production and ownership, and appropriate pricing for use of the finished product."

The projects would have an effect across the economy, Stevens said.

"The suppliers would feel it was worth their while to improve their offering if projects were not just one-offs. The financial sector would be attracted to the opportunities for financing and asset ownership. The real economy would benefit from the steady pipeline of construction work – as opposed to a boom and bust. It would also benefit from confidence about improved efficiency of logistics over time resulting from the better infrastructure. Amenity would be improved for millions of ordinary citizens in their daily lives. We could unleash large potential benefits that at present are not available because of congestion in our transportation networks." 

The usually-reserved governor was blunt about infrastructure projects being held back by political, rather than financial, factors.

"The impediments to this outcome are not financial. The funding would be available, with long-term interest rates the lowest we have ever seen or are likely to.

"The impediments are in our decision-making processes and, it seems, in our inability to find political agreement on how to proceed. 

"Physical infrastructure is, of course, only part of what we need. The confidence-enhancing narrative needs to extend to skills, education, technology, the ability and freedom to respond to incentives, the ability to adapt and the willingness to take on risk. It is in these areas too, where there are various initiatives in place or planned, but which often do not get enough attention, that we need to create a positive dynamic of confidence, innovation and investment. 

"That is the upside we need to create."

That ideal has not changed, nor have the impediments to it. By the looks of Macromonitor's graphs, we are again going through a boom-and-bust cycle, getting out of the jail of an immediate problem, but missing another opportunity to realise the nation's great potential.