At what point should the team reasonably and publicly call it a season?

I'm not being remotely original to suggest that it's time the M's shut it down for 2008, and trade some pieces to try and reload for 2009.  Bedard, Sexson, maybe Ibanez, I don't know who else.  This has probably been suggested around LL at least 947 times by now.

But apart from some low attendance figures, does it seem to anyone else that there's been relatively little negative reaction, among "mainstream" fans and media, to the team's trainwreck of a season?  My point being, publicly throwing in the towel by pulling the trigger on those types of trades seems to me to be very likely to provoke a significantly negative backlash from the fanbase.  The earlier in the season the teardown begins, the more likely it is to see, for instance, weekday game attendance falling consistently below the 10,000 mark.

Assuming that those trades must be made, where's the break-even point?  Do they wait until the deadline to try and put up the "we're trying" facade for as long as possible, if for no other reason than to try and keep attendance marginally respectable?  Or do they just say nuts to it all and start shopping Bedard now?  I'll be damned if I know the answer.