same old story, the

Idioms  

1. Also, the same old rigmarole. A frequently recurring event or situation, as in It's the same old story—they won't hire you without experience but how can you get experience if you're not hired? Both these expressions originally alluded to a tiresome, rambling discourse but today are used mainly for an irksome recurrence. The first gained currency during World War II with a song, “As Time Goes By,” popularized in the film Casablanca (1942).

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Example Sentences

It's the same old story: the poor and innocent get poorer.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thus, the anthropological part of the "Weltraetsel" contains nothing new; always the same old story, the same threadbare assertions without a shred of evidence to corroborate them.

From At the Deathbed of Darwinism A Series of Papers by O'Harra, Edwin V.

I had gone out as a missionary; and deeper than ever in my consciousness, I must feel the want and woe of the returning prodigal; the same old story, the ever-recurring failure.

From Cape Cod Folks by Greene, Sarah P. McLean