You bring up an interesting point, I'm not really sure what the "point" of Malthouse is now. It's pretty clear we won't be challenging for at least 3 or so years. Unless he plans on coaching well into his 60's then he won't be able to see a rebuild through to the end.
I am a Malthouse fan, but he's starting to show he's fading. He's not going to be viable for more than a bandaid tenure of 2 or 3 years. With the help of Free Agency he may patch up the list to give the fans/club a more competitive season or even a finals berth. But I would prefer to see Carlton identify a young assistant coach, from an attacking school of football, to mold a dynasty.
One thing about coaches like Bomber Thompson (why i mentioned him), or Alistair Clarkson, they always seem on top of the situation, they're not dumbfounded and trying to explain/excuse/justify the why/how/when/what of things going wrong. Malthouse in all his years should know why, but all he seems to espouse this year is a sense of being dumbfounded, and having to continue to work to identify problems and why theyre happening and how to fix them.