Over the last few weeks we've seen the government unveil a raft of new initiatives aimed at trying to reduce its cavernous deficit in the polls.

But the fact is that the current government's time is up. In a multi-party democracy it is incredibly unusual to find one party dominating government for ever.

In Britain, certainly since the Second World War, we have tended to go in cycles of a decade and a half of one party dominating and then the other taking over.

The only exception to that was from the mid-60s to the late 70s when, in truth, there wasn't a great deal of difference between Wilson's Labour and Heath's Conservatives anyway.

By this stage in a government's life, the problems it is trying to address tend to either be niche issues for most voters.

Or they are problems that have arisen because of its own decisions earlier during its administration - ie they are issues of its own making.

That's true of two of the major planks of government concern at the moment - the number of refugees being dealt with and policing issues.

If you look at statistics, the number of asylum applications currently being dealt with is now lower than it was in 2002.

The problem is that far fewer are being dealt by the Home Office so the backlog is growing exponentially. 

There are, of course, many other factors surrouding the issue - but that is at the heart of what is being talked of as "a crisis."

The other big issue that Rishi Sunak is trying to bang the drum about is policing and anti-social behaviour.

One big feature that was trailed as a major announcement was the decision to ban nitrous oxide - laughing gas.

The government seemed to think this was a big step. From what I've seen most of the electorate have seen it as a "so what" issue!

But when ministers crow about recruiting 20,000 extra police officers over recent years to tackle anti-social behaviour you have to ask why that is necessary.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that between 2010 and 2017 the number of police officers in the UK fell from 144,000 to 122,000. A drop of 22,000?

The number now is still 2,000 below what it was when the government came into power!

The government can stand there saying: "The other lot would do worse to tackle the problem than we will."

But it cannot be a surprise if the electorate turn round and decide that having got us into what is being portrayed as a mess they want someone else to sort it out!

That's what happened to John Major in 1997 and Gordon Brown in 2010 - and if you want to go back in history it's not a million miles away from the feeling in 1964 or 1979.

Rishi Sunak is a technocrat. He wants to run a grown-up government tackling problems.

His problem is that most of those problems have been caused by the government he now leads - and of which he was a member for several years.

The electorate can see that and will remember that at the next election.

He will be facing a Labour Party that certainly lacks the excitement and the star quality of the Blair years - but does look competent and ready for government.

Elections tend to be won or lost years before they are actually held - and while I'm not expecting a 1997-style landslide, it is difficult to see how the current government can recover from the problems that have mounted on its watch.