Last year I wrote about the conspicuous gaiety with which the Liberal Party marked the anniversary of a series of radio broadcasts by its founder Sir Robert Menzies, which came to be grouped under the rubric "The Forgotten People" speeches.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott is closer to the Coalition's centre of gravity on energy policy. Credit:Alex Elinghausen

It was obvious to me that the celebrations were conducted amid an air of unreality. Even at the apparent apogee of its power the party of Menzies was facing an existential crisis. The glamour of the celebrations evoked a garden party in the summer of 1914 before the unimaginable horrors of the Great War shattered English society and the global order over which Great Britain had presided since the Seven Years War. Never such innocence again.

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Last May, the Liberal Party was riven by personality feuds and ideological schisms. Where the former end and the latter begin probably eludes even the chief protagonists. Having got the implications of the Super Saturday byelections wrong, I am loathe to make bold predictions. But I am willing to make some observations about history. This week’s crisis over energy policy is but a symptom of a much deeper identity crisis on the Centre Right of Australian politics. Both Tony Abbott and the Prime Minister have engaged in an indirect if bitter intellectual debate as to which of them is the legitimate heir to the Menzies tradition.