Too much listening. Not enough doing. Liberal Leader Sussan Ley was warned from the start that her softly-softly approach to politics was frustrating voters.

Having banished most of the party’s talent to seethe on the backbench, she now stands alone.

And if Sky News Australia is to be believed, there is serious talk about rolling Ley and replacing her with Andrew Hastie.

Hastie is one of the few Liberal MPs making headway on social media with aspirational Instagram videos and clear policy pledges.

From manufacturing to energy to immigration, Hastie might not be the Reform Messiah, but he could be a Prime Minister.

Even the Moderates appear to sense it.

The poll released last night could not be worse. One Nation, thought of by many in the Liberal Party fold as an unserious protest party, is within sight of overtaking them.

The Coalition is at 24 per cent, a bulk of that belonging to the steady popularity of the Nationals. One Nation is at 18 per cent all on its own.

Pauline Hanson and her three additional senators have done everything the ABC, professional pollsters, and conservative commentators told them not to.

As a party, they are listening to their voters instead of focus groups.

Keep in mind, this polling was done before the announcement on Net Zero, so if it is a reaction to anything, it is Ley’s enduring indecision.

Word is that the Moderates, aka the architects of the Liberal Party’s descent into electoral oblivion, have finally decided to hop on the Hastie lifeboat.

They are like Billy Zane’s swanky businessman, Cal Hockley, grabbing abandoned children from the deck of the Titanic to buy their way to safety while good people are dragged down with the wreck.

‘Even if it’s Hastie, that’s better than a leader that stands for nothing. Hastie isn’t my cup of tea, but he can have his go and if he’s right our polls will improve. But if he’s wrong, we need to reassess the decisions already made,’ said an anonymous Moderate.

It sounds as if they are prepared to grit their teeth back into power and then shuffle the deck chairs as they see fit from the safety of government.

This is not the only leaky Moderate, and no doubt there will be more careful drips over the headlines as we approach an inevitable leadership spill.

Not even the Moderates can stomach a future littered with the reminder that they were beaten in the polls by Pauline Hanson. It would be too much for their pride.

Sussan Ley came out this morning and told 2GB:

‘I’ve been underestimated a lot of my life. I remember when a lot of blokes told me I couldn’t fly an aeroplane, and did a lot to keep me out of the front seat, and I flew an aeroplane. I flew a mustering plane in very small circles, very close to the ground, and that was pretty tough at the time.’

Ley appears to be unaware that she is describing the near-fatal holding pattern she has trapped the party in.

While Ley’s future is mapped out before her, the succession is far from settled.

Andrew Hastie might be the name bandied around this morning, but someone like Angus Taylor could swoop in from the side.

Remember, everyone was certain Peter Dutton would be the one to roll Malcolm Turnbull, and then Scott Morrison stepped in from stage left.