Nothing short of open warfare has erupted in the federal Liberal Party. This once great political party resembles nothing so much as a pub brawl.

For anyone who's followed Liberalism closely and enthusiastically in this country, as I have for more than a quarter of a century, these are dark days. There is widespread talk of knives being sharpened and coups being hatched. Senior party figures are retreating from the past week's dramas in disgust and horror. At the grassroots, Liberal membership is in decline, and those remaining activists are angry at the policy direction in Canberra.

Notwithstanding Christopher Pyne's ugly triumphalism, small-l liberals feel betrayed. Conservatives either vent their anger and or place their hopes in a Tony Abbott comeback, which much to the angst of metropolitan sophisticates and the Canberra press gallery now looks conceivable. In between, there is much sighing and shaking of heads.

It was not meant to be like this. And the fact that it is calls for some explanation.

The temptation, scarcely resisted, is to blame it all on the Prime Minister and his circle. This interpretation has a lot going for it. I have lost count of the number of times I have been regaled by Liberal MPs with anecdotes about snubs by Malcolm Turnbull.

To be sure, backbenchers always feel that their leader does not pay them much attention: the stories about John Gorton's contempt for his colleagues in the late '60s and early '70s, for instance, are legendary. But there is a striking malice about the way some Liberal MPs spit about this prime minister. To paraphrase Paul Hasluck, the longer one is associated with Turnbull, the deeper the contempt for him grows and they find it hard to allow him any merit. So much for the vision, unity and leadership that was supposed to characterise this prime ministership.

Another shortcoming is policy. The Liberal Party purportedly stands for individual freedom and the right to make your own way in life. It sides with people against government. There is very little of that philosophical mindset evident in recent government decisions, from energy and education to spending and superannuation.

And yet it is facile to just blame Turnbull and his lot for today's widespread discontent. After all, if everything is the fault of a sub-par prime minister and a bunch of under-performing cabinet ministers, it suggests this is a temporary problem that can be fixed with comparative ease. It is an explanation that distracts us from contemplating a more uncomfortable possibility, one that might cast doubt on the nature of public-policy making in this nation. I am referring to what the distinguished journalist Paul Kelly has called a political crisis.

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Australia, Kelly argues, is suffering a malaise in its political decision-making that goes beyond partisan politics. The origins of the crisis are deep-seated, which means the crisis is unlikely to be easily reversed. Just ponder how increasingly poll-driven our political climate has become. Or how the relentless 24/7 news cycle, together with noisy and polarising social media, has fostered the growth of so-called "infotainment" and sensationalism in political news. Or how a hostile upper house of Parliament all too often blocks important legislation.

This portends grave consequences for the body politic. It means politics as reported is a question of who is up or down rather than of policy and political debates. It means that any prime minister will struggle to implement a long-term productivity reform agenda that might kickstart a new era of prosperity. It also means constant changing of leaders: during the past decade, we've had six prime ministerships, seven defence ministers and six NSW premiers.

We are on borrowed time and living beyond our means: growth is sluggish and our debt-to-GDP ratio is escalating. We are now in a phase very much different from 1983 to 2007 the golden era of economic reform one where the pace of the news cycle is faster, and the media beast has to be constantly fed.

Selling sound free-market reform in such a volatile political environment is more difficult than ever. It is destabilising for a prime minister to be all too often looking over his shoulder for the flash of daggers. This undermines his authority and makes governing even more fraught. At the turn of the decade, Labor learned the hard way that fratricidal governments do not win elections. How quickly today's Liberals have forgotten.

I don't know how to resolve this crisis, but I suspect leadership changes however justified they may seem in the short term will only prolong the problems bedevilling Australia's political system. For the MPs who sack Turnbull, the moment will feel cathartic, the relief of having defenestrated a traitor totheir cause and ended a rush of bad polls and bad-news stories.

But there is every likelihood his successor will face the same problems that every leader since John Howard has faced. The present troubles will start all over again. And our political crisis endures.

Tom Switzer is a presenter on ABC's Radio National.

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Federal Liberal Party in-fighting threatens to destroy it - The Sydney Morning Herald