A seat at the table of the most powerful Australians is not where you would expect to find an outer-suburban couple fed up with flatlining wages, soaring living costs, and itching to throw a grenade into the political establishment. But when it is suggested towards the end of this July’s power panel discussion that a place should be set aside on the power list for disgruntled voters, many of the day’s themes coalesce.

The undercurrents of power tend to ebb and flow. But 2017 began with a truly transforming power shift: the inauguration of a populist President in the US. It is a moment, according to former Liberal minister Amanda Vanstone, that marks the end of “rule by the clever”.