Tony Abbott’s strategy to win last year’s election involved visiting Victoria, on average, once a fortnight, claiming Melbourne as his ‘‘second home’’ and forging a working relationship with the man who led the Liberals back into power at a state level, Ted Baillieu.

Interviewed by the Herald Sun’s Phil Hudson early last year, Abbott confessed that he felt much better placed to appreciate Melbourne than he was just a few years earlier – and very much at home.

‘‘Ted has gone out of his way to be helpful to me,’’ he added, explaining that, while the two leaders had very different styles, ‘‘I get on with him extremely well.’’ A few weeks later Baillieu was gone, toppled by his colleagues after a little over two years as premier.

Abbott’s efforts were rewarded in the September federal election when the Liberal Party picked up three seats from Labor in Victoria (La Trobe, Deakin and Corangamite), one more than the party managed in Queensland, and Baillieu’s successor, Denis Napthine, was expected to put the state Coalition back on track to retain office.

Fast-forward to this week and it is hard to comprehend how far the Liberal Party has fallen, at a state and federal level, in the state that produced its founder and most towering figure, Sir Robert Menzies.