Labour is so divided that it risks talking only to itself. Gripped by factionalism, its own electoral problems – long in the making – and the multitude of issues facing the country seem to fade away.

Labour failed to capitalise after the referendum when the Tories were thrown into a crisis of their own creation. Instead they created their own mess with a poorly executed coup. MPs, understandably panicked by the referendum results and worried that Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t doing well enough, paired up with those who had – as Peter Mandelson advised – been waiting for the last nine months for a moment of weakness to overthrow their leader. At a time when Labour should have been attacking the Tories and standing up for people experiencing xenophobic abuse, they were embroiled in a feud.

The coup itself is unique in recent times, but Labour’s navel gazing is not. In the immediate aftermath of the 2010 general election the Tories cobbled together a coalition and set about finger pointing: Labour is to blame for the country’s economic mess, they can’t be trusted. The much-needed response from Labour ranks, that it couldn’t have been their party that caused a financial crash across the western world, was entirely absent. Instead they retreated into a lengthy leadership contest. Labour continues to be haunted by the Tories’ facetious but effective narrative.

The tribalism that grasps the Labour party is part of its problem. There’s an idea among lifelong supporters and MPs that you’re born Labour, you call the party your own and you will never leave it. This makes some sense – these are people whose families for generations have been Labour members, who spend their weekends canvassing and invest all their spare time, emotional energy and money into the party. They want to feel they have control over it.

But it is also partly responsible for the current divisions. The people who feel entitled to call the party their own have competing viewpoints; some of them want to see a leftward shift and others range from wanting Miliband 2.0 to the rebirth of Blairism. Now the parliamentary Labour party is in open revolt against a leader who was given less than a year in the job, it is difficult to see how all these factions can be reconciled.

‘The people who feel entitled to call the party their own have competing viewpoints; some of them want to see a leftward shift and others range from wanting Miliband 2.0 to the rebirth of Blairism.’ Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

The ideological divides have long existed in the Labour party, but differences hardened after the initial excitement of New Labour taking power. Amid many positive policies, the calamitous and entirely misguided war in Iraq, an unwillingness to properly challenge Thatcherism and the Blair government’s decision to hoard power in the centre meant splits became more entrenched. Slowly, Labour voters in economically decaying communities were left feeling abandoned, and the left of the party was devastated by a missed opportunity to challenge the Chicago school’s fundamentally flawed version of economics.

Then came Ed Miliband. Armed with some good ideas his leadership was unfortunately built on timid policies and mugs that read “Controls on immigration”. There were few real answers to the huge problems facing this country. The idea too often seems to be “Vote for Labour because we aren’t the Tories”. This loyalty belongs to a different era. As Ukip and the SNP grew in strength, Labour were found wanting and support in the party’s so-called heartlands has begun to wither. Corbynism has been a response to all this.

Unwilling to even try to understand why Corbyn won a landslide victory in the last leadership election, his long-term critics preach collectivism but seem to want a club of their own choosing. That’s where this idea of #SavingLabour has come from. The party needs to be “rescued” from Corbyn. But the underlying message – not supported by all supporters of the campaign – is that Labour must be rescued from its new members and want the party to be a genuine alternative.

These people are dismissed as “Trots”, mocked as former Green party members (not “pure” Labour) or smeared as members of the long-discredited and unwanted Socialist Workers party. In truth, the vast majority are decent people – vetted by the party – who want a change to the damaging status quo. If Labour is to be a successful movement it needs to be an inclusive one.

That is not to ignore the problems on the left. Instead of slinging insults at opponents or branding them all Blairites, Corbyn supporters would do better to focus on the task at hand – winning a future general election.

Labour is in the midst of an existential crisis that has been a long time in the making. It’s true there are many MPs sympathetic to his politics but who think Corbyn’s leadership is untenable. Despite what people from all sides of Labour’s present debate might suggest, the fractures in the Labour party aren’t really about Corbyn but the politics he represents.