He has launched a wave of initiatives – the jingoistic revamp of 457 visas, the jingoistic revamp of requirements for Australian citizenship, an Anzac Day visit to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, new funding arrangements for schools and universities, and now off to meet with Donald Trump.

The ‘commentariat’ have been left in his wake to attempt to interpret what all this means, and how he is positioning himself within and beyond the Liberal Party.

Perhaps it means little beyond the fact that he is ‘wallowing’, with delight, in simply being PM. Or, perhaps, he has been paying out, in part to his ‘right wing’ colleagues, while attempting to negate some of Hanson’s appeal, and in part attempting to recover some lost ground against, if not ‘wedge’, the ALP opposition.

Probably, all of the above!

There is no doubt that Malcolm is enjoying being prime minister and so, to a significant extent, he doesn’t concern himself with the ins and outs of daily politics, and media comments.

Yet, he has the reality of real pressure from Abbott, the Nats, and other conservatives in, and beyond, his government, and the impact that Shorten has had on key ‘bread and butter’ issues such as health and education.

He is also well behind in most polls, and has had to endure the most significant and rapid decline in personal poll standing in recorded history. He has clearly fallen well short of the enormous expectations that accompanied him when he took the leadership from Abbott.

So, is Malcolm working to achieve some sort of ‘clever’ political Lazarus strategy, or is he simply creating much colour and movement to distract?

While much has been written about the policy positions Malcolm has taken in the past, on issues such as climate, gay marriage, tax, and so on, and while these past positions were fundamental to the expectations that accompanied his ascension to the leadership, significant doubt now exists as to whether Malcolm has ever really had a defined policy agenda, that actually motivated him to regain the leadership. Or, was it simply just to be the Leader?

In these terms, it is perhaps futile to attempt to interpret the recent spate of initiatives beyond Malcolm bouncing from one to the next for a multiplicity of reasons, but none more important than simply him ‘being there’, as PM.

Of course, in politics, you can only duck and weave, and ‘spin’ issues, for so long. A final day of reckoning will ultimately come.

While its significance has been downplayed by Malcolm, next Tuesday’s budget could be a bell-weather for Malcolm. All the budget rhetoric, all the positive and exaggerated claims about the ‘strength’ of our economy, about our ‘exciting time to be an Australian’, all in a most difficult and unpredictable global environment, could and should be laid bare, and responsibility for neglect and drift shoved home to roost.

You may recall that Julia Gillard attempted to redefine herself as ‘the Real Julia’. Malcolm is not in such a game. He leaves it up to us, the voters, to define him.

Voters have been doing this, and it is why his popularity ratings have slumped so far, and so fast. If next week’s budget doesn’t ‘hit the spot’, the electoral ‘tagging’ could be terminal for Malcolm.