The past decade has seen a period of unparalleled growth in executive remuneration. But while CEO pay exploded, shareholders looked on helplessly as some of Australia's best-known companies self-destructed. When the fall eventually came, executives were well protected. Shareholders and creditors were not so lucky.

From Telstra's enriching of Sol Trujillo to the toppling of Eddy Groves's ABC Learning Centres and the untold accounts of the billions lost by the collapsed Babcock & Brown, Allco Finance Group and MFS, Pigs at the Trough tells the story of how a generation of executives,...