A little over two years ago I wrote in a column that at a gathering in the United States of his most senior Australian staff, Rupert Murdoch annointed Tony Abbott as his preferred prime minister, and that readers of News Ltd papers would soon see the fruits of an undeclared campaign by editors and columnists to deliver their boss his desired outcome.

''It seems increasingly apparent that Labor and the Greens are going to be facing a largely hostile popular press between now and any election,'' I wrote in May 2011, adding: ''No wonder the Liberal leader has a spring in his step - the News boss is not in the habit of backing losers.''

Closer than close: Tony Abbott and Rupert Murdoch. Credit:Twitter

The campaign to install Abbott started within days of that fateful confab at Murdoch's ranch near Carmel, California, with Labor's 2011 budget receiving some unflattering reviews from News Ltd tabloids and, of course, The Australian.

Labor was at that time very much in bed with the Greens, enough to convince Murdoch they had to go, regardless of the National Broadband Network. The campaign has been relentless ever since.