ANDREW CARSWELL: As arrogance sets, Labor have convinced themselves they actually deserve a second term

Hubris has a way of sneaking up on people — especially in politics.

It’s easy to spot on the face of your rival, but hard to see in the mirror. Easy to hear in your opponent’s voice, harder to detect in your own.

And before you even comprehend that it is nibbling at your ankles, it has already consumed you.

This life lesson is now on full display in this Federal election campaign, where a Labor Party which has spent weeks denigrating Peter Dutton for his alleged hubris (long since vanished; see polling), only to become oblivious to its own rising over-confidence.

In just four weeks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his Labor team and staff have swung from collective despair to unchecked arrogance. They have cloaked themselves in cockiness, merely 10 days into a campaign that still has countless twists and turns to come.

The embarrassment of plunging into an unwieldy minority government after just one term has failed to temper this supreme confidence. And there appears no introspection from the dud hand they have served up to the Australian people in the past three years; remaining impervious to what has been inflicted on households and small businesses.

The unprecedented erosion of Australia’s living standards. The record small business insolvency rate. The decade of future budget deficits. The breakdown of social cohesion. The rampant crime. The crippling cost of living.

It’s hard to show remorse when you’re trying to disguise your elation. Because you’re winning again!

Labor, that is. Not you.

Such hubris invites trouble, breeding complacency, triggering mistakes, and sending the wrong message to voters, who either feel compelled to punish it, or free to park their vote elsewhere.

This failure to comprehend the irritability Australians have towards their Government, and set the posture accordingly, is best displayed within Albanese’s own office.

The Canberra press gallery has long taken issue with Albanese’s office. It is the target of repeated grumblings and rants about its ineffectiveness and indifference.

So for those travelling in Albanese’s press pack in recent days, the emergence of puffy chests has been galling.

Albanese’s minions and spinners are openly boasting that they have Dutton’s measure. Maybe they do. They are gloating, without a hint of doubt, that it was always going to be that way. Maybe it was. The dark depression that seized Labor staffers just two months ago has long been forgotten. Now they are self-proclaimed rock stars.

As one senior journalist expressed to this column, in an imagined conversation with Albanese’s team: “But hang on, you guys have been terrible’’.

Through this growing hubris, Albanese and his team have made themselves a target; a dangerous proposition in an election campaign.

There is already a sense within the press gallery that Albanese has managed to put them in a pocket over the past few years, introducing rules around press conferences and banning follow-up questions, taking the heat out of any inquisitions.

Such formality has given Albanese the upper hand. While he still bristles at tough questions and appears incredulous when asked to defend himself, he is, more often than not, unrattled by the media’s semi-circle of scrutiny.

Like his open confidence in already besting Dutton, Albanese now seems to believe he’s got the press gallery’s measure too.

Kudos for the chutzpah. But the scribes may have the final say.

While the media pack is not baying for blood yet, there is a sense the heat is about to be turned up. Hubris has a way of uniting people.

Despite the perceptions of inadequacy, the Albanese PMO appears to have their man in shape for the big show at the right time.

That is no easy task given the PM’s propensity for verbal meandering. But Albanese’s reversal of fortunes has more to do with the sharpness and preparedness of the Labor HQ campaign than some grand reformation within his office.

Albanese has clearly handed the reins to those with far sharper campaign minds — chief among them, ALP national secretary Paul Erickson. On the election roadshow, the best campaigners know to follow the script laid out by campaign headquarters, informed by research and polling. Political instinct is important, but true discipline means ceding control.

It feels like the converse has been happening in the Coalition camp, with a few early decisions coming from within Dutton’s office, not campaign headquarters, whether through advisers who think they know better than accomplished party bosses, or detachment between the travelling and campaign teams.

That was certainly the perception in the lead up to the campaign, where a more robust set of policy offerings was birthed; positions that perhaps wouldn’t have seen the light of day had campaign chiefs had time to assess, test, and intervene.

That was back when the Coalition was battling their own hubris, setting expectations that they were on the brink of pulling off the unthinkable.

A month is a long time in politics.

In that time, hubris got up and found itself a new home.