The former staff of famously knifed Australian prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard say they can't believe the Liberals are walking down the same torturous leadership path as Labor did.

Under Australia's past decade of tumultuous leadership changes, a prime minister has not served a full term since 2007.

Sitting prime minister Rudd was dumped by the Labor party and replaced by Gillard in a shock coup in mid-2010. Three years later, he returned as prime minister when the party did the exact same thing to Gillard. Labor was turfed out at the 2013 federal election and has since made it tougher to change leaders.

Now, the Liberal party – which dumped sitting PM Tony Abbott in 2015 – is circling current PM Malcolm Turnbull in a chaotic leadership spill that has consumed the week.

Sean Kelly worked as a press secretary for Rudd through the 2010 spill, and then worked for Gillard through a leadership challenge in 2012, which she survived.

"I can’t believe that Labor did it once. I couldn’t believe it when Labor did it twice. I couldn’t believe it when the Libs did it a first time and now I can’t believe the Libs are doing it a second time," he told BuzzFeed News.

"It is sustained insanity over almost a decade now. It is almost a sustained lack of courage to persist with a prime minister from one election to the next."