One man’s lonely, friendless trudge down the mean streets of Manhattan. One woman’s loved up festival of adoration at the Sydney Opera House. Are these to be the last snaps on the final page of the Rudd and Gillard governments’ family photograph album, the ones that set their respective images for ever?

History — at least of the first draft variety — is recasting what until just days ago seemed the verities of Labor’s recent revolving-door prime ministers.