On Monday night, Q&A began by setting itself and the rest of us the question: "Where art thou, Malcolm?"

Which turned out to be a little too Shakespearean for Australia's WTF (What Thou For?) electorate, a mass of decent humanity re-contemplating the long contemplated bona-fides of the nation's 27th prime minister in eight minutes and wishing each one of them would just go away. This is not Shakespeare so much as it is a 1990s TV Week to which, in hindsight, you'd prefer to set fire. The Malcolm Files may turn out to be like The X-Files, in that there appears to be no answer in sight and that our best hopes will be destroyed by a terrible sequel that nobody really wanted.

But Q&A deals with the here and now, and for these purposes we're stuck with a remake of Malcolm In The Middle.

The program's panel spent much of its first half dissecting the bipartisan situation comedy that has become the nation's federal government and its sole bipartisan embrace of modern education reform: everybody gets a prize! Be it the Lodge, a Senate seat - or, in the case of the Senate's Liberal lioness Michaelia Cash and independent firebrand Jacqui Lambie - recognition of every vowel sound you care to invent during your latest media opportunity.

Lambie and Cash were sadly absent on Monday night, the sole current politicians being Labor's Alannah MacTiernan and Ewen Jones, the Government Whip, who, given the polls, arrived with the appropriate bearing of a man fresh from a dungeon. Also present was a former politician, a Mister John Hewson, of whom it can be said there is nothing the man doesn't know about losing lay-down misere elections. Amid thin competition, Hewson has also assumed the mantle of being the best ex-prime minister we never had, and he came equipped as usual with some knee-in-the-groin advice for the incumbent.

Malcolm, in case you'd missed the point of the past seven months, did a costume change at some point during last September's rid-me-of-this-troublesome-priest comedy and somehow donned the clerical garb of the man who preceded him. Without us noticing.

But Hewson was here to confirm: in Turnbull, we have Abbott-lite. But not that lite: think fat-free yoghurt with whipped cream.

"Look, obviously Malcolm did a deal to get there and the deal he did actually compromised some of the basic positions that he'd previously held and held publicly," Hewson revealed to the great shock of the nation.

"There's a fellow running in the seat of Wentworth, my old seat, against Malcolm, who just wants the old Malcolm to come back. The guy that stood for gay marriage… and climate change and tax reform and so on. And I think that's been a major reason why his popularity has collapsed."

Collapsed is putting it a bit strongly, but polls suggest the PM is certainly facing a toilet just waiting to be flushed, and the Q&A panel was mystified as to how the nation's finger could be so close to the button, so soon.

Even Labor's MacTiernan declared herself - happily, one assumes - bemused.

"Everyone understands the compromises that Malcolm Turnbull made about climate change and marriage equality in order to keep the right wing in the cart. I understand that. Not that I approve, but I understand it," MacTiernan said.

"But what has absolutely surprised us all is that Malcolm Turnbull didn't actually have an economic plan, that he'd been sitting there all that time waiting to be leader and he gets the nod and there's no economic plan. I mean, I would have expected there to be a mini-budget in December or January or February at the latest."

It is indeed a mystery, which we can be confident Q&A will set about resolving over the 74 days between today and July 2. It's a long time for an election campaign, but if there's anything to be thankful for it's that we don't have to endure the years-long ordeal currently embroiling our friends in the United States.

There, they once spent most of two years electing a man named Bill Clinton, who six months into his presidency in 1993 endured even worse indignities than Malcolm Turnbull is facing early in is his tenure. Time magazine ran a cover: "The Incredible Shrinking President". And look where Bill ended up.

Monday's Q&A captured the Turnbull shrinkage. Over the next 11 weeks, we'll see if there's a Clinton-like burst and revival.