With Malcolm Turnbull being shown the exit door by his colleagues and former treasurer, Scott Morrison was installed in his place.

The rapidity with which leaders have changed in recent years has given rise to a plethora of internet memes and jokes.

“Be sure to get you car serviced at least once every prime minister” is just one such pun.

But it also gives rise to some pertinent questions about what we want and expect in a political leader.

In the one hundred and nine years from Federation to 2010, Australia had 24 prime ministerships.

Since 2010 we have had six.

That’s right.

Of our 30 prime ministerships, one fifth have come in the past eight years.

(Some of the individual PMs had more than one turn, so prime ministerships rather than prime ministers.)

Effective political leadership requires two key characteristics: judgement and vision.

A good leader is able to judge the political and social landscape and knows how to negotiate.

They can judge the needs and mood of the electorate and decisions are based not on partisan expediency.

They know when to listen and to whom.

They know when to act on advice and when to take an initiative.

The concept of initiative leads us to the second requirement: vision.

In order to be effective, a leader needs to connect with community.

This requires giving people something to believe in: a clear path towards the future.

Leaders with vision inspire trust: something that has been noticeably lacking in Australian politics of late.

When the focus of individual politicians turns to power rather than the exercise of the authority conferred by the electorate, it is the beginning of the end.

The descent into blind partisanship and ego-driven power grabbing has left a cynical and disillusioned electorate and an unstable government.

The Australian electorate is, by and large, very willing to give its political leaders a fair go.

But when the electorate turns, it can turn quickly and decisively.