What is Julie supposed to do?’ one MP asked sarcastically at the time. ‘Perform worse to make Tony look better by way of comparison?

In a national security speech after the February spill motion, Abbott called on immigrants ’to be as tolerant of others as we are of them.

Abbott’s strategists had hoped that the domestic lament in front of world leaders might gain international media attention, given the comparatively modest user-pays amount, and help his case to pass the rebate legislation. If this was the plan, it failed.

Senator Xenophon told Abbott at the end of 2014 that he needed to be very careful, because family members of the senator who were lifelong Liberal voters were not prepared to vote for the government. Xenophon told Abbott he was saying this as a critic, not an enemy, of the Liberal Party, and warned Abbott his colleagues would turn against him. ‘I’m not going to be rolled,’ Abbott fired back. ‘It will not happen.’ He wasn’t using his ears.

Julie Bishop had the good grace to joke that she was in favour of publishing talking points so she didn’t have to inanely repeat them.

Authority to Abbott was hierarchical. Those at the top exercised power and those at the bottom deferred. As we have seen, Abbott was, to his great cost, largely uninterested in the views of those beneath him. His dismissal of subordinates was partly because as he made his way through Australia’s great institutions, he tended to look to leaders for support rather than peers. This was crucial to understanding the way Abbott learned about politics, and why he ended up being a failed prime minister.

In opposition, Abbott once gathered his staff to ask for suggestions on how the team could improve. One brave staffer mentioned Credlin’s tendency to micro-manage. Abbott wasn’t impressed and told the staffer to apologise and buy Credlin flowers. Chivalry wasn’t dead for Abbott.

Putin was talking to the Papua New Guinean prime minister Peter O’Neill at the APEC summit in Beijing on 11 November when Abbott sidled over, downplayed the reports of shirtfronting and tried to be friendly to Putin, saying that he just needed to be seen having a conversation with him. O’Neill found it all very amusing, telling others about the odd experience.

Costello, no great friend of Abbott, and no doubt jealous of Abbott’s decision to fight on and prosper instead of quitting after the 2007 defeat, would become a constant critic of Hockey.

What the outbursts against Roy, Blaine, and the party more generally over complaints about Credlin had in common was a sense that his authority was not being respected.