Paradigm failure
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Something to understand about power structures and other paradigms is that they collapse not necessarily because they are degenerating, but because a better power structure has become available. This is where the theoretical appeal of Karl Popper’s Falsificationism hit the buffers of real-life behavioural psychology, and why Thomas Kuhn’s account of scientific revolutions is more nuanced.
So, those who would cast a poor political leader out, must first present a robust and plausible alternative — ideally a group — that can shift the axis of the debate and provide a preferable alternative (it is not about doing a better job, but re-framing the debate altogether). Where a poor political leader has been defenestrated and replaced by someone simply claiming to be able to do a better job, the results are often underwhelming, and the political movement remains broken and susceptible to replacement.
That said, as a defensive strategy, incumbents should surround themselves with people who can exercise on the plan but do not have the gumption or charisma to re-frame the narrative, and who do not therefore present a plausible alternative. At least require someone to have the imagination to reframe things entirely.
The premises of James P. Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games throw light here: replacing an incumbent with a like-for-like replacement is a combative strategy from a finite game: the rules remain the same, the boundaries are fixed; there will be a winner and a loser. Reframing the narrative is a “poetic” act of imagination that changes the rules, identifies new objectives and allows the co-operative endeavour (a polity) to continue: this is an infinite game strategy.
Politicians who have successfully re-framed the narrative (for better or worse): Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s New Labour; David Lange’s Fourth Labour government in New Zealand; Donald Trump’s presidency of the United States. Note that each of these movements eventually foundered when it lost its aspiration to challenge and imagine a better future, and descended into a finite game-style battle within the movement to exert influence and usurp power.
Employers: remember, the reason employees stay is the not because you are not failing at the task of providing meaningful, rewarding work, but because no-one yet has re-framed the work proposition for that employee. As long as you continually reframe the work proposition, imaginatively challenging the employee, she will not be inclined to look elsewhere.