I get the impression that there was not a lot of effective communication between the 2 pilots to try to resolve a chaotic situation. It seemed like each existed in their own little world and the little communication that existed did not add anything constructive.
Actually this is one of the things I find amusing (for want of a better word) about proposals to have only one pilot on an aircraft, with another at some central base. If communication can break down over 1 metre, how will it go over a couple of thousand?
Effective communication in a coughpit, especially when things are busy, uses all sorts of modes. As often as not, you'll learn something simply by watching what the other guy is doing. Management of a coughpit, is not something that comes naturally to all pilots, but it is the difference between the great captains, and the also rans. Making a coughpit work when you have highly experienced crews is one thing, but there are all sorts of variations on the theme that can make it go from easy, to very hard work indeed. And the issues aren't always in any given seat.
The cacophony of alarms and warnings that would have been going on is not being given sufficient credence by those who haven't experienced it either. You have simultaneous loud alarms, that may actually be telling you opposite things, added to pages of EICAS messages, it makes for an interesting environment.
Sitting in your own bubble is sometimes the only way to do things. Tasks are generally split up, so that one person is actually flying the aircraft, whilst the other is taking care of everything else. You need to stop, and come together every now and then, to keep the mental model on the same page, but tasks need to be logically split up.
Looking at this event, the captain was the pilot flying, and whilst he was having a fairly hard time of it, with MCAS repeatedly activating, he was trimming sufficiently to at least keep up. He'd have had momentary periods when he could try to manage the FO, but they would have been in the MCAS inactivity times, which, as we now know, are only a few seconds long. His ability to keep track of what the FO was doing, or otherwise, would have been quite limited. At some point though, he seems to have decided that the FO was not up to the task of supporting him, and has decided to reverse the roles. Sadly the FO was even less able to handle the task of actually flying. So, whilst they were unable to dig themselves out of the hole, it was a hole that was dug by Boeing.