And then the nation’s politicians got on with talking among themselves.

They talked about Christopher Pyne’s apology (assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar reviewed it as “heartfelt”) for his boast that the moderates were in the ascendancy in the Liberal Party and that same-sex marriage would be a reality sooner than anyone thought, even as they urged everyone to move on.

They talked about former prime minister Tony Abbott’s alternative policy manifesto, revealed this week, in which  he continued the white-anting and sniping he promised wouldn’t happen when he was deposed in 2015.

The question really needs to be asked what the flow-on effects will be for regional seats, because while it’s the Liberals bickering, not The Nationals, our MPs are still in coalition with them.

If the Kevin Rudd-Julia Gillard-Kevin Rudd years taught us anything about Australian politics, it’s that voters will not tolerate politicians who appear to spend more time focusing on themselves than they do the nation.

Labor tore itself apart over six years and three prime ministerial terms, destroying political careers in the process.

Coalition MPs, watching from the Opposition benches, should have been seeing a cautionary tale.

Instead, it is increasingly apparent, they saw a template for government.

How else to explain the sense of deja vu as a weakened prime minister leading a minority government is shadowed by the leader they dispatched? All while the Opposition enjoys the show, emphasises its own comparative stability and looks forward to the next election?

There is even talk now that Mr Abbott can save the furniture for the Coalition at the next poll – which was the reasoning for Mr Rudd coming back to the top job before the election in 2013.

Have any lessons been learnt? Has anything changed? Even if they start talking about something of more importance, how many people will be listening?

Federal member for Calare Andrew Gee did not buy into the debate when asked on Friday, but surely we cannot expect outcomes for this seat if the senior party does not have firm direction.