We've got a housing crisis in our biggest city, we are falling short of our flagship economic promise, the Reserve Bank is stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea on monetary policy and, oh yes, I repeatedly pulled a waitress's ponytail.

After more than a week of attention focused on his frankly weird behaviour in that Parnell cafe, Key must be yearning for the day when the spotlight will shift to some of the Government's intractable economic problems.

He would have known when the scandal broke that it had the kind of human-level interest plus the personal suggestion of character fault (think Tuku Morgan's expensive underpants, Helen Clark's "painting" or Aaron Gilmore's Hanmer meltdown) that would give the story legs.

His flight from Auckland to Istanbul, knowing the furore that would be breaking at home, must have felt like an eternity. He would have - or should have - known that after all the crises he has managed over the last seven years (and mostly to public applause) this one stood out. It was not about an errant minister or backbencher nor a department or public sector mandarin acting beyond the pale.

This went to his character and credibility, and it has become an indelible part of his biography. But more tellingly, it also carries its own symbolism.

Morgan's supposed extravagance stood as proxy for the Bolger Government's concession to NZ First's Maori MPs. Clark signing a painting she didn't paint and her speeding motorcade came to represent a growing arrogance. Will this be the moment that epitomises a government that thinks it can get away with anything on the basis of one man's popularity?

Sure, so far Key's administration has appeared bullet proof. Just this year it has come under fire over "corporate welfare" from allies on the Right while the Left has become increasingly shrill over a grab-bag of issues, but its stellar poll ratings just kept trucking on.

But make no mistake, this is hurting Key. He has been happy to be the butt of jokes when they are his own - self-deprecation is an attractive trait for a Kiwi politician. But it is not so easy to take when people are laughing at you, not with you, and your public embarrassment goes international.

The Opposition has tried to keep it alive with questions in the House. Labour deputy leader Annette King reached for Key's own advice to his incoming third government: Was he being arrogant, veering off into space or simply being totally inappropriate? Key's deputy Bill English went for "totally inappropriate".

By Wednesday the Opposition had decided to pull back during question time, although they are likely to have another swing next week when Key is back in the House. But it is extraneous effort. A large section of the public are laughing at him already.

Like most of us, Key likes to be liked - only more so. He might at some unconscious level have felt, given his "celebrity" status, that Amanda Bailey would have enjoyed the attention; could tell her mates "hey the prime minister is a regular in our cafe and has a running gag with me where he pulls my hair".

Except on all the evidence she made it clear she didn't and he not only didn't pick up the signals but decided to shoulder past them in an appalling error of judgment.

Amid a welter of selfies, and an election campaign that defied the dirty laundry aired in public, it is easy to see why he and his Government have come to believe their own infallibility. When confidence is justified by consistently high polling it is easy to miss the signs of your own over-confidence.

And there have been indications aplenty of that in the few short months since the election, including an increasingly cavalier attitude to media questioning and public debate.

A surplus this year has gone from a touchstone of the Government's economic performance to an artificial target akin to landing a 747 on a pin head. The public have no right to know the details of when troops leave for Iraq, even when the Australians reveal it for all to see. A promise of more spending in Northland becomes a casual "maybe" once the bridge building promise backfires. Transport Minister Simon Bridges seeking information from officials for what was a blatant political promise over the bridges was waved away and the Cabinet Manual dismissed as a mere guideline of correct procedure.

Using the GCSB to promote Trade Minister Tim Groser's bid for the WTO job? Nothing to see here. The public just don't care.

The latest surveys suggest all of these, and the ponytail incidents, have not damaged National's standing a jot.

In truth it is too soon to tell. These things tend to build until a dam breaks, rather than play out as a linear erosion of support.

Too often the media are accused of a crying wolf over so-called "tipping points" for a government.

But this past week has definitely been a tipping point for Key's personal mana.