Like a newly installed chief executive, Malcolm Turnbull has used his first major economic address to deliver his vision statement for the nation.

"Surely it is that we should continue to be a high-wage, generous social welfare net first-world economy," he said. "A nation that is as fair as it is open to opportunity."

In the speech to the Economic and Social Outlook Conference, the PM said everything his Government did was a means to that end.

In one way it is an utterly unremarkable goal, and it is hard to imagine that any of the last three prime ministers would disagree with it.

The tricky bit will be turning vision into reality and ensuring that means are not confused with ends. It is there where the recent track record is so grim.

If he is to succeed, then Mr Turnbull will have to fix what was so badly broken in the Rudd-Gillard-Abbott era: the chronic loss of trust in the office he now holds.

Because between 2009 and today, trust between the Australian people and their prime minister was shattered.

Rebuilding it will be Mr Turnbull's major task because, like the financial system, a Government cannot function unless it enjoys the confidence of the majority of the electorate.

Rewind to 2007 and Kevin Rudd won an election selling hope. The public bought it and invested enormous trust in him, even though it did not really know him well.

Mr Rudd made action on climate change the totemic sign of his "New Leadership".

Then, when the Millennium Drought gripped the nation, people wanted action and Mr Rudd spoke in messianic terms, pronouncing climate change "the great moral challenge of our generation".

It was noted at the time that the problem with moral arguments is they are rigid. If you lay down fields full of them to blow up your opponents, you run the risk of stepping on one yourself.

When Mr Rudd cut and ran from his great moral challenge he failed his own test and suffered a catastrophic loss of public confidence. So did the office of prime minister.

Julia Gillard never recovered from the way she rose to power. Snatching leadership in the dead of night rocked a public that was not prepared for the change. Trust in the highest office in the land took another beating.

Tony Abbott was the great oppositionist of our age. He understood that trust was Labor's Achilles heel. He managed to turn one statement by Ms Gillard, "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead", into the sole measure of her character.

Mr Abbott, like Mr Rudd, is a man steeped in the belief that the world plays host to an eternal battle between good and evil. He made keeping the public's trust the great test of a prime minister, and breaching it the unforgiveable sin.

He, like Mr Rudd, set his own moral trap. He then won an election based on what he would not do and what he was not, never articulating a positive view of what an Australia under his leadership would be.

So before Mr Abbott became Prime Minister he had severely narrowed the ground on which he could move. Knowing all this, it still defies belief that his first budget was such a massive breach of trust, but it is no surprise that he never recovered from it.

Now it is Mr Turnbull's turn and there is one promising sign. He understands that to change the nation he has to change its recent political culture.

"Over the years, I've noticed the public on whose goodwill all hope of reform depends is impatient with the blame game," he said.

"The first step in persuasion is to understand and respect the intelligence of your audience. In this case, that is the Australian people. We need to explain that every vector, every sinew of our Government's policy is designed to deliver better jobs and greater opportunities. In short, a more prosperous and secure future for them and their children and grandchildren."

There are early signs that the public is willing to trust Mr Turnbull, because they hope he has drawn a line under the bitter Rudd-Gillard-Abbott years.

But in developing an agenda for his Government he will have to move with great care and show enormous political skill.

History shows that the people's trust is fragile.