This gives him the blessing of enormous public goodwill – and the curse of impossible expectations.

The Turnbull government has agreed to the vast majority of the Murray review's recommendations. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

He is the most popular new prime minister of the past two decades, based on his debut rating in the Fairfax-Ipsos poll. His net approval rating is higher than those of John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.

On a test of 10 positive leader attributes, most Australians rate Turnbull as possessing all of them. On the basis of their poll debuts, Turnbull is regarded as more competent than Howard, more open to ideas than Gillard and a stronger leader than Abbott. And he is rated as better in every way than Labor leader Bill Shorten.

But the numbers that will most transfix the party machine officials will be the primary vote figures, where Labor has slumped to a dire 30 per cent, down 6 per cent in a month. This is 3 points lower than at the last election. If this persists into next year, Labor will start to consider drastic measures.