But others could see the warning signs.
High on a hill, among the trees that surround the University of Auckland, people began discussing the nation's predicament.
Headed by Vice-Chancellor Dr John Hood, this was not the usual bunch of businessmen with dollar signs in their eyes and driven by self-interest. Hood, himself a former chief executive of Fletcher Paper and Fletcher Challenge Building, came at the discussion from both education and business perspectives.
From the beginning, Hood was determined to step aside from politics and formulate a plan of action that would put the social and economic welfare of the country first.
Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley had both campaigned on various permutations of the 'knowledge economy' but the term was rapidly losing traction. What did it mean? More importantly, what did it mean for a couple in west Auckland struggling to bring up a family on $30,000 a year?
Hood's idea was multi-pronged. First, to make sure that wider New Zealand knew what the politicians were talking about - and what we could do to improve our chances in the global economy. Second, to make sure that the new way forward was not hijacked by any political party.
As Hood saw it, any new direction must sit over the top of the inevitable bickering between parties and so hold the country's course steady, preferably over 10 years at least. Most important, the ideas must be transmitted with clarity and passion by the country's most trusted leaders, ensuring that that family in West Auckland really understands what is going on and buys into the message.
Over the next few months Hood gathered a group around himself.
Early into the loop was Hugh Fletcher, who had recently stepped aside as chief executive of Fletcher Challenge to pursue academic interests.
Fletcher, a deeply principled man who never joined the Business Roundtable - or the free-market scramble of the late 80s - also brought twin talents to the group.
As Hood pointed out, while many people were leaving the country and forging distinguished careers, there was little attempt to tap into their experience and knowledge. Nor was New Zealand looking at how other countries - especially small ones - were adjusting to the pressures of globalisation.
"Issues were not being adequately addressed," he says. "The country's economic performance, social development, technical development, research and development, educational development and our investment in all of these areas. There was a lack of connection with the diaspora [expatriate New Zealanders scattered throughout the world], people were leaving..."
Hood decided that the only way forward was to somehow break the cycle of apathy.
Over the past 20 years especially, New Zealanders faced with ricocheting economic changes had come to feel powerless.
"We needed something to raise the levels of understanding of New Zealanders about our prospects", says Hood. "The view was that would only happen if we got buy-in from all the different constituents across the political spectrum."
"And New Zealand was falling into a very large hole."
By around October 2000 the group had grown to include the 18-strong University Council chaired by Fletcher and including such strong thinkers as John Graham, former headmaster of Auckland Grammar, retired Judge and former vice-chancellor of the university Mick Brown, student representatives and government nominees.
Soon word spread to business and the wider community. Various groups such as the loosely-constructed business ginger group known as the Knowledge Guerillas, and initiatives like Competitive Auckland, which is focussed on lifting the city's performance, criss-crossed and intermingled.
For example, Bridget Wickham - a member of the University Council and Competitive Auckland, as well as the wife of Chris Liddell, chief executive of Carter Holt Harvey - straddled three different worlds.
Soon 33-year-old Andrew Grant, who heads consultants McKinsey in New Zealand, and Scott Perkins of Deutsche Bank joined in.
The group was interesting, most of them younger, moving in the same social and business circles. Although they all vow and declare that ideas were not put together during meetings in smoke-filled rooms, it is is likely that at least some of them got together over something stronger than a coffee.
Says Andrew Grant: "We were all friends...we found that some of the forums provided new ways to draw the cream off each other, to share ideas and gather momentum... but most of the time it was e-mail, phone calls. Some of us got together for coffee, it was part of other conversations."
Occasionally members of the group ended up at the same dinner parties but, Wickham insists, this was no backroom affair.
Instead there was a concentrated effort to stop the idea getting elitist. "We wanted a very good cross section of the various leadership groups," she says. "We have always seen these issues as critical for the country. This is not so much a political issue as a national one. We saw this as a way to stimulate national conversation about the opportunities and challenges of the knowledge economy - how New Zealand could take best advantage of the opportunities while preserving our way of life."
As Grant says: "Most of us have children" (his are aged two years and six months). We want New Zealand to be the sort of place they can grow up into...when they turn 18 there'll be a richness of choice about what dynamic company they work for - not what airline they fly off to New York on."
Always the group realised that the only chance of success was by getting ordinary people on board.
But they needed money. "Next came the canvassing of likely business supporters to see if they would be sponsors of the conference," says Wickham. "And very early on we identified seven gold sponsors." They were Carter Holt Harvey (Liddell), McKinsey (Grant), Telecom (Theresa Gattung) Deutsche Bank (Perkins), GlobalCo (Craig Norgate), the New Zealand Herald (Gavin Ellis) and the Tindall Foundation (Stephen Tindall).
Next came the organising committee, which began to drive the idea of a conference bringing together New Zealand's brightest and best from all over the world, plus people from other nations which had been down the same track and had come out the other side.
And they decided to call it something catchy: Catching the Knowledge Wave.
"Says Grant: "It was a bunch of people who were passionate about making a difference to New Zealand. A bunch who wanted to be part of the solution rather than the problem - and be part of that dialogue."
Other players came on board like Carter Holt's Kent Blumberg, Rudd Watts' Tony Caughey, businessman Rick Christie - charged by the Prime Minister with delivering an innovation strategy - union economist Peter Conway, medical entrepreneur Professor Peter Gluckman, educator Lesley Max, geographer Professor Warren Moran, and pro vice-chancellor Chris Tremewan, who ran the project in its formative stages.
By then - following the first Business to Government forum of late 2000 - both main political parties had been approached.
Cabinet Minister Pete Hodgson and National's IT guru Maurice Williamson came on board. Helen Clark agreed to co-chair the conference with John Hood.
A date was set six months out, emails, faxes, phone calls and people began flying all over the world and gradually the conference took shape.
This group has been in the background but it is now time to let the Catching The Knowledge Wave Conference form its own crashing crescendo, work its own magic.
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