Richard Buxton: Manchester United's rot started from the top

For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, conflict is hanging in the Manchester air.

Liverpool's growing prosperity again stands at the heart of their north-west rivals' complaints - but Manchester United have left it far too late to arrest their own continual shortcomings.

A 2-0 defeat by Burnley yesterday morning (Singapore time) hammered home the realisation that the 20-time English champions are now in a terminal drift under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Discord raged across Old Trafford towards an absentee hierarchy during the Clarets' first win in 58 years.

"We want United back" was one of the more sanitised chants aimed at the Glazer family and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, who both elected to sit out this game.

Yet those dissenting voices were conspicuous by their absence when United continued to sweep all before them at the highest level, in spite of their parsimonious American ownership.

Green and gold scarves became a cheap fashion accessory instead of a protest symbol.

United are currently paying the price for success.

They did not merely turn a blind eye to the financial ransacking which has gone on since 2005, but also poked the finger of fun at Liverpool and Arsenal fans for attempting to shed light on their respective clubs' mismanagement.

Rather than scrutinising their own Stateside custodians, they preferred to delight in the misfortunes that engulfed Anfield and the Emirates Stadium during the previous decade.

Compared to Tom Hicks, George Gillett and Stan Kroenke, the Glazers have escaped fairly lightly as the fourth horsemen of the footballing apocalypse.

They are not the only ones.

Solskjaer has enjoyed the trappings of familiarity.

None of his former teammates are willing to acknowledge that United's current Emperor is not actually wearing any clothes at all.

Liverpool's old guard often acted as judge, jury and executioner over their post-1990 malaise.

Whenever a succession of managers and players under-performed, their illustrious predecessors formed an orderly queue in various radio and television studios to call them out.

The same cannot be said of the Red Devils' media acolytes, who have publicly rallied to Solskjaer's defence over recent weeks.

Roy Keane, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville are among the worst offenders, despite statistics continuing to condemn the beleaguered Norwegian.

Following Solskjaer's appointment as Jose Mourinho's permanent successor last March, he has lost more league games than he has won.

He also produced an underwhelming return of 42 points; a figure brought into stark contrast by Liverpool's haul of 85 during the same period.

Fears that United will enter a lengthy period of wilderness similar to the one on Merseyside - where domestic success has proved elusive for nearly three decades - are only now being brought to bear.

The past seven years were ample warning signs which were never actually heeded.

They are likely to prove a long-standing rule rather than an unsightly exception.

Woodward infamously kept a reminder of their lowest point in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era on his smartphone.

The scoreboard from the first-leg defeat by Olympiakos in the Champions League's Round of 16 in 2014 doubled as a cautionary tale and an unflattering screensaver.

If the much-maligned executive feels the need for a belated change of background, an image of his paymasters or their accomplices in the Stretford End would be befitting alternatives.

Because everyone at the Theatre of Dreams is culpable for this never-ending nightmare.