Real leadership is about understanding the differences and nuances and finding tangible ways of uniting a nation, not just wrapping them in a flag and demanding they cheer, write Peter Lewis and Jackie Woods.

Tony Abbott's "Team Australia" is designed to unite us. But the risk is Australians will see it more like the humiliation of primary school PE, with a captain who overlooks the average kids and blatantly favours the jocks.

While the Team is the PM's latest tool to unite the nation in the face of external threats - insert terrorism, boats, debt - this week's Essential Report suggests his Government is failing to unite the nation in a more basic way.

Marxism might be old-school, but the vast majority of Australians reject the popular notion that class divisions are a thing of the past.

Rather, there's overwhelming agreement (79 per cent) with the view that social classes still exist in Australia. If anything, the intersection between social class and politics is becoming more polarised.

And if Treasurer Joe Hockey is wondering why his commentary on the driving habits of poor people hit such a raw nerve, perhaps he should take a look at this finding:

Q. Whose interests do you think the Liberal Party mainly represent?

Total Apr-13 Working class 4% 5% Middle class 17% 20% Upper class 47% 40% All of them 14% 17% None of them 8% 8% Don't know 11% 9%

While only 2 per cent of Australians identify as upper class, nearly half of all voters believe the Liberal Party mainly represents the interests of upper class people.

That's not a new phenomenon. Voters came up with the same answer when we asked them last year, and consistently identify the Liberal brand with corporate interests. But the trend is becoming more pronounced.

The perception that Liberals mainly represent the upper class is up seven points since the Coalition took office; with a drift away from working class, middle class and critically - "all of them".

The perception of Labor's class representation is also becoming starker.

Q. Whose interests do you think the Labor Party mainly represent?

Total Apr-13 Working class 41% 30% Middle class 14% 16% Upper class 8% 13% All of them 8% 8% None of them 16% 22% Don't know 13% 11%

Labor has had an 11-point jump in the perception it represents the interests of working class people since earlier last year.

There's a case that for Labor in Opposition, boosting its perception as representatives of the working class is a positive. After all, it needs to rebuild its traditional voting base and brand after a complicated period in government where people remembered who Labor was meant to represent, but didn't especially trust them to do it.

And despite structural changes to the economy that are leading to the decline of industries employing blue-collar workers, about a third of voters still identify as working class.

Entrenched views on which sections of society the parties represent are reflected in our complicated views about economic management.

While "the economy" is often presented in the form of an abstract set of accounts, with the Liberals considered better at managing the bank book; bring people and their class interests into the equation - think jobs, housing, grocery prices, pension payments - and we see some clear divides.

Q. Which party - Labor or Liberal - do you think is best when it comes to:

Labor Liberal No Difference Don't Know Difference (Labor v. Liberal) Representing the interests of Australian working families 48% 17% 25% 11% +31% Standing up for the middle class in Australia 30% 28% 27% 15% +2% Representing the interests of the large corporate and financial interests 9% 59% 19% 13% -50% Handling the economy overall 23% 37% 27% 14% -14% Handling the economy in a way that best helps small business 24% 32% 27% 17% -8% Handling the economy in a way that best helps the middle class 25% 32% 28% 14% -7% Handling the economy in a way that helps you and people like you the most 32% 27% 27% 14% +5%

Again, most of these perceptions aren't new - but the divide is becoming starker. Since the budget was delivered in May, the view that the Liberals represent the interests of large corporate and financial interests has risen five points.

But back to Team Australia - half of us (49 per cent) see ourselves sitting in the middle - the one place on the political spectrum where people see neither party as championing their interests.

Uniting people is an admirable thing that leaders should try to do but sport is probably a poor device, given it is often a forum of competition and exclusion for those on the field and blind acceptance from those on the sideline.

Real leadership is about understanding the differences and nuances and finding tangible ways of uniting a nation, not just wrapping them in a flag and demanding they cheer.

The survey was conducted online from the August 22-25, 2014 and is based on 1008 respondents.

Peter Lewis is a director of Essential Media Communications. View his full profile here. Jackie Woods is a communications consultant at Essential Media Communications. View her full profile here.