Former deputy leader Julie Bishop contradicted her government’s (latest) official policy and advocated bipartisanship with Labor on energy policy; and another terrible Newspoll result confirmed what no one really needs confirming: voters will punish the Liberals for all of it. The more Liberal Party unity collapses, the more its members accuse each other of disloyalty. But what the Liberals call loyalty looks increasingly like tribalism, and tribalism is the enemy of civil society, and it is the enemy of progress. Loyalty is principled. Tribalism is savage. Happier times ... Kelly O'Dwyer and daughter Olivia joined the women in the ministry in a photo with then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his deputy, Julie Bishop, after the swearing-in ceremony in 2015. Credit:Andrew Meares In one of the most arresting images of the week, Banks was seen standing for her speech in the House of Representatives, while five of her former Liberal colleagues turned their backs on her as they left.

It was a stark visual representation of the party’s rejection of criticism and responsibility for itself. Banks, of course, was accused of disloyalty for her switch. Former Prime Minister John Howard popped up on 7.30 and said Banks “owes a lot to the Liberal Party”, and that politicians should “never forget” they owe their positions to the patronage of their own party. Liberal branch members who campaigned for Banks in her seat of Chisholm were quoted as saying they felt “betrayed” and “almost used”. Banks says she was bullied and intimidated by some of her colleagues during the coup against Turnbull, but apparently she owes fealty to her tormentors. Outside politics, we call that an abusive relationship.

Bishop is also the subject of dark muttering from her colleagues over what they say is her courting of publicity and her rebranding as a feminist role model (even though she won’t use the F-word). Never mind that what Bishop highlighted this week – the need for bipartisanship on energy policy – is probably one of the few things the majority of Australians agree on. And then there is the traitor-in-chief, Malcolm Turnbull. This week Turnbull reacted strongly on Twitter against a story published in The Australian. In it, an anonymous source asserted "his hands were all over” Banks’ defection. Turnbull mocked the idea as paranoid. The same story also reported Turnbull was in contact, via text message, with his successor in Wentworth, independent Kerryn Phelps. This was a cause for “concern” among Liberals who are angry at Turnbull being “unwilling to provide public backing to Liberal candidate Dave Sharma” during the Wentworth byelection. Never mind that Turnbull’s contact with Phelps was as part of a job handover, which shows he is doing the right thing by his former constituents. Who cares about those constituents now that they have voted the wrong way? An anonymous Liberal was quoted as saying the contact between Phelps and Turnbull “speaks for itself and confirms everybody’s suspicions”, which is as conspiratorial as it gets.

Apparently Turnbull is now a double agent, except in this analogy the Russians are the perfectly sensible centre-right women who now populate the crossbench. This sort of blind tribalism – where difference is hounded out and members of the tribe are persecuted for associating with outsiders – is usually associated with the left side of politics. It is particularly tragic in the Liberal Party, which is supposed to represent liberal values such as individualism, independence of thought and the tolerance of dissent. In a recent New Yorker article on the tribalism in American politics, journalist George Packer observed that tribes are “badges of identity, not of thought ... they make thinking unnecessary, because they do it for you, and may punish you if you try to do it for yourself”. The Liberal Party, paralysed on policy, appears to have abandoned thought. The same article quoted research on America’s political “tribes” by an organisation called “More in Common”. They identified seven of them, but they also identified a larger grouping of what they called the Exhausted Majority comprising two-thirds of Americans, across tribal lines.

“The members of the Exhausted Majority are politically diverse, but united by their desire for flexibility and compromise," Packer wrote. "In some ways, they have more in common with one another than with either extreme.” He concludes that a shrewd politician would do well to appeal to the Exhausted Majority. The research was American but I suspect the same would be found in Australia. Our biggest tribe encompasses those of us exhausted by political conflict, and desperate for inclusive government. We are banging our drums for it. Twitter: @JacquelineMaley Follow Jacqueline Maley on Facebook