Menzies’ party has been the most successful in Australian political history. Even in the last tumultuous decade, the Liberals have been in power for much longer than Labor. It’s a good thing, too. With the polls now pointing to a Labor minority or majority government, the next three years will be tough.

The Labor Party has every possible advantage. Historically, it looked after the working class and many Australians were generational Labor voters. Its funding came from the unions. Union membership peaked in the late 1940s and early 1950s at around 63 per cent of the workforce.

While union membership is now at around 13 per cent of the workforce, you’d think that Labor’s ability to raise funds would be compromised. But industry super funds have picked up where union memberships left off. Union employees who act as board members on industry super funds still earn money for the unions.

It’s not just the unions that help Labor. Our entire education system is geared towards supporting progressive politics. While once upon a time universities were the forum for a contest of ideas, now they are a training ground for progressive politics. Conservative academic voices are few and the struggle to get ahead is real.

The progressive echo chamber extends to the academic bodies that curate the disciplinary trends. Progressive think tanks tend to be regarded as non-partisan bodies while conservative think tanks are regarded with a sneer of disdain from the academy.

So, when the Liberal Party tries to develop policy, they tend to bunker down and rely on a handful of professional political staffers who have developed their policy expertise in the cut and thrust of day-to-day politics. Labor has this too but can also call on an army of academics willing to fight for the progressive cause.

The media tend to act in the same way. Anybody who thinks the ABC or SBS are impartial is wrong. But you won’t find many academics conducting research into the state-owned media’s progressive bias. That would be counterproductive to the progressive cause.

It is unfortunate that the Liberal Party has been unable to overcome its insularity. This insularity has become a survival mechanism but this election it has proven to be no longer useful. The unresolved debacle within the NSW Liberals hasn’t helped.

It really has been a case of Mr Dutton vs. the World.

In such an environment, Mr Dutton has actually saved the Liberal Party. The end of the world that was predicted after Scott Morrison’s tenure hasn’t happened. And even Graham Richardson thinks it is not too late for Mr Dutton if he can pull a rabbit out of his hat.

For the future, the Liberals need to get their head out of the sand and broaden their policy expertise. The on-again, off-again announcements this election campaign indicate policymaking on the fly. They had months to do a better job of it.

However, with Mr Dutton having to fight all and sundry, including conservative parties preferencing everyone but the Liberals, it was never a fair fight. Those who say the Liberals are not ready to govern will hopefully be in for a surprise.

Just as the Whitlam government thought it was world-beating, if Albo gets up tomorrow, he won’t be able to help himself.

But like Whitlam, Albo is running out of your money and his time is running out. If Albo wins, I hope he suffers a similar fate to Whitlam’s. All the money he’s lost me these last three years will make it worthwhile.

God knows we are going to need a strong leader as global security continues to deteriorate. Hopefully our national wealth can hold out long enough until we rid ourselves of this economically malignant government.

In the meantime, if the Liberals are unsuccessful, they need to lick their wounds and rebuild their policy expertise. I don’t think there is anyone else in the front bench who can work like Peter Dutton, so I do hope he remains leader whatever the outcome.

But if the Liberals are to return to their position as the natural party of government, they must increase their policymaking depth and overcome the insularity that has not helped them during this campaign.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is The Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. All opinions in this article are the author’s own.