Here we are, smack in themiddle of the "Biggest Deal Boom - Evaaah", as The Wall Street Journal pointed out the other day. Indeed, the deal frenzy is such that should the second half of the year resemble the first half, close to $5,000bn-worth of transactions will be announced worldwide, 28 per cent more than the previous peak in 2000.

So how are all those overpaid and overworked M&A bankers feeling these days? Not so great, in fact. At the very same moment when they have never been busier - flying round the world in private jets to attend infinitely ponderous and desperately important meetings - M&A advisory revenue has never been more irrelevant to their firms' bottom lines. In a cruel and ironic twist we are actually witnessing the final death rattle of the once highly prestigious - and still obscenely profitable - business of providing strategic advice to corporate chief executives.