This article explores the intersection between politics, media and young Australians in an era of growing mistrust of public institutions. The article poses a central research question of how teachers might use the causes of growing public mistrust to better design civics and citizenship learning opportunities. The research hypothesises that civics educators must fully understand the causes behind political cynicism before they can properly design curricula which equip students with the appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to make rational voting choices. The article further argues that a fundamental misconception of the separation of powers prevents students from passing over key conceptual thresholds and, therefore, from perceiving politics positively. The article’s overarching thesis is that political literacy can halt and reverse Australians’ growing mistrust in public institutions, and its method is to explore the long- and short-term causes of growing public mistrust, and to offer practitioners insights into how best to teach politics knowledge, skills and attitudes through threshold concepts, narrative pedagogies and real world scenario