In both cases, these leaders appeared to lag decades behind their parties by favouring old-style nativism, protectionism, and direct government investment. Yet they turned out to be way ahead of them in reading a new public antipathy for politics-as-usual marked by travel rorts and broken promises, flat wages, a diminishing social safety net, and growing wealth disparity. Could the major parties, currently led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, decline to the point of irrelevance? Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Neo-liberal decay is advancing here as well although differently. Call it entropy with Australian characteristics. A common element is that the erosion is meta-political in that it critiques the orthodoxy while synthesising both left and right-wing ideas - progressive on climate, marriage, taxation and welfare, but more conservative on defence, borders, foreign workers, and other traditional values. As in Britain, Australian Labor has read this mood more adroitly – aided by not being in power. But what does chasing this new dynamic, and its accompanying cynicism towards political institutions, mean for economic growth, productivity, debt and deficits? The question raises long-run unknowns for which the contemporary electoral contest is poorly configured. Despite their claimed high-mindedness, politicians invariably play a shorter game. That said, the pressure on the system is already bringing some surprising changes. Malcolm Turnbull's big government pivot to the Gonski needs-based-funding model, his "screw them!" bank tax, his income tax hike for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and his new state-funded energy approach, are cases in point. As is Bill Shorten's left-ward dash for distance in response. That Shorten feels he has room on his left flank, speaks to the electoral sea change. Vacating the centre-ground once led to broadsheet ridicule and the surrender of moderately inclined voters. Now, a new doughnut polity is taking shape. Its middle is characterised by not much at all. Owning it merely dilutes your brand – your product differentiation. Authenticity, in the shouty belligerent era of digital disruption, seems to be nine-tenths bombast. It distrusts compromise, abhors subtlety, spits in the face of nuance. Hands across the water in the "sensible centre"? To many, it smells like a cosy deal closing them out. The Senate, with its proportional representation system, is the logical harbinger of this epochal shift.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation, and more recently, the fracturing of conservative support being articulated by Cory Bernardi, suggest the bigger changes (for now) are on the right. Bernardi in particular, is proving to be a highly effective social and sectional media campaigner making his challenge to Coalition dominance all the more existential. Bill Shorten, seen with his wife Chloe, is likely to send jitters through high income earners and the top end of town with his speech on Friday. Credit:Scott Barbour The old parties might go the way of decommissioned coal-fired plants like Wallerawang and Hazelwood – stranded assets around whom whole new patterns of consumption have moved. The Coalition in particular, which lacks the financial and institutional ballast of Labor's trade union base, is only as good as the policies it enacts - or abandons – and the extent to which core values are attenuated in the process of holding power. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn surprised the establishment in Britain with his success at the election. Credit:Leon Neal/Getty Images

Such compromises have their limits, as contemporary strains point up. So far, peace, like last year's election, has been purchased at the leader's personal expense. This is short-sighted. Turnbull is known to be "for" action on climate change and "for" social policy reform such as marriage equality and yet is unable to deliver – or even advocate these popular causes credibly. Senator Cory Bernardi says Parliament should be suspended until the citizenship crisis can be resolved. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Nationals routinely remind the Prime Minister that even a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage would constitute a breach of the Coalition Agreement (the terms of which by the way remain secret). In this case, Turnbull's modernism is its own negative because it not only exacerbates his personal authenticity problem, it shines a spotlight on his lack of authority. What he cannot do has already defined his premiership, even as he gets some important things done.

The abject nature of the government's position is laid bare by the mediocre defence being mounted in the face of Tony Abbott's insurrection. Unsurprisingly, right-wing MPs advocating on behalf of the government also happen to be the direct beneficiaries of holding office – senior cabinet ministers. Who knew? Dominant conservatives such as Barnaby Joyce, Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg call for unity and claim to be above the soap opera. Turnbull himself ploughs on, declaring from a high moral plane that his only employment concerns are for the job security of 24 million Australians. Ordinary people see straight through this pantomime just as they do when Abbott campaigns for the kind of backbone he himself hung in the closet while in office. They know the very same players would be arguing the opposite were their power roles reversed. Loading The charge of "fake news" is misdirection from the masters of it. The deeper problem is fake representation. Follow us on Facebook