Honour boards, letterheads and annual reports were festooned with post-nominal OBEs, CBEs and the prized dames and knights and double-barrelled names.

Those were the days when such titles were treated seriously, not only by those who received them but by a society then more attuned to Britain.

The value of calling someone, say, Dame Fanny or Sir Marmaduke was quite special, as well as conveying automatic indication of their social worth.

One didn’t quite bow or curtsy.

The imperial honours system was phased out by the Australian government in 1982 and by state governments in 1989.

Ha! Along comes Prime Minister Tony Abbott — the Sir Lancelot emeritus of the monarchist movement — with a flash of his broadsword, flourish of trumpets and free tankards of mead for the men.

Abbott proclaimed a new tier placed atop our honours system: the AK/AD, or knight/dame of the Order of Australia.

Inaugural recipients: retiring Governor-General Quentin Bryce and her successor, Peter Cosgrove.

In Mr Abbott’s words, recipients will be Australians of “extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit”.

Mr Abbott describes this curious move as an “important grace note in our national life”.

A grace note being “an embellishment not essential to the harmony or melody”.

I beg to differ.

This is not mere tinkling embellishment, but a clanging great discord that sends the Mr Abbott government back into our imperial past.

It defies the composition and spirit of the very different nation we have become.

Late last year, when Mr Abbott was asked if he intended to follow New Zealand’s conservative government, which restored dames and knights in 2009, he implied he would not.

“I don’t mind having knights and dames around,” he said.

“We’ve thankfully still got a few.”

So now it’s two more, with more to come: four a year.

I am interested to know exactly how the Order of Australia system will benefit from this super-box of an addition.

All those named ACs (Companion of the Order of Australia), the country’s highest civil honour, are suddenly down a notch: second-class citizens.

And so on, through the AOs, AMs and OAMs.

There’s worse.

With the return of anachronistic titles comes undesirable aspects of a class system we were well rid of.

At least we don’t have hereditary or life peerages — but watch out in case Mr Abbott is eyeing the Senate as a satellite House of Lords.

There is now a generation of Australians who do not know, or probably don’t care, about the distinction of being called sir or dame.

For them, it’s probably sufficient to read that worthy citizens have been recognised with a couple of capital letters after their name.

What disturbs me is that the exclusivity of the dames and knights tier appears to bypass conventional selection procedures.

Instead of recipients being determined by the Order of Australia Council, they will be decided by the Prime Minister, although he will consult the council chairman.

Why? Are these new awards so special they have to be bestowed not by the designated body but at the behest of the Court of King Tony?

My objections to restoring the dames and knights is not a reflection on the outstanding capabilities of Cosgrove or Bryce —- great Australians both.

But how interesting, how intriguing, it would have been if Dame Quentin, who has made her republican sentiments more than obvious, had simply said: “Thanks, but no thanks.”