Kevin Rudd was given no warning, but even he lasted longer than Abbott. Julia Gillard had plenty of warnings, but even she lasted longer than Abbott.
Abbott ignored all the warnings, from beginning to end — the public ones, the private ones, from his friends, his colleagues, the media.
His colleagues were not being disloyal. They did not feel they had betrayed him; they believed he had betrayed them. Their motives were honourable. They didn’t want him to fail; they wanted the government to succeed, and they wanted the Coalition re-elected.
Abbott and Credlin had played it harder and rougher than anybody else to get where they wanted to be. But they proved incapable of managing their own office, much less the government. Then, when it was over, when it was crystal-clear to everyone that they had failed, when everyone else could see why they had failed, she played the gender card while he played the victim.
In The Road to Ruin, prominent political commentator, author, and columnist for The Australian Niki Savva reveals the ruinous behaviour of former prime minister Tony Abbott and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin. Based on her unrivalled access to their colleagues, and devastating first-person accounts of what went on behind the scenes, Savva paints an unforgettable picture of a unique duo who wielded power ruthlessly but not well.
The Road to Ruin, Niki Savva
Sometimes it's hard to work out what happened to the Australian Political system, and then along comes a book like this to explain quite a bit of it.
Whilst there is a page or two of salacious commentary and speculation (as often quoted in the media at the time of release) that's a minor distraction from the bulk that outlines an office, and people who operate in absolute, total and utter dysfunction. Stupidity, arrogance play their own part as well.
Alas it's the sort of book that the anti-Abbott camp is more likely to read, but really should be something that people from his own particular branch of thinking have a good hard look at.