Kevin Rudd took a very strategic approach to his guerrilla campaign against then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

He often waited until Ms Gillard was out of the country before making newsworthy interventions or posting an amusing selfie on social media.

At other times, he made an effort to be in the media at the same time voters were surveyed for Newspolls.

In doing so, Mr Rudd simultaneously increased his own personal standing while tearing down his vanquisher.

A similar campaign of attrition, run by Australia’s most recent PM-in-exile, saw Tony Abbott running amok in the media this week.

Not coincidentally, the actual PM was overseas, and Newspoll is due to survey voters this weekend.

Since the close-call election result, in which Mr Turnbull lost 14 of the seats won by Tony Abbott at the previous election, the former PM has again become the troublesome agitator that he was in the lead up to the election.

No undermining

Before this week, Mr Abbott made two high profile speeches that created pain for Mr Turnbull.

The first was to the Samuel Griffith Society, in which Mr Abbott expressed regret for not scrapping section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA), essentially setting loose conservative attack dogs within the government.

Abbott’s behaviour is reminiscent of Malcolm Turnbull’s, pre-spill. Photo: Getty

Then there was the speech to the Master Builders Association (MBA) in Victoria a fortnight ago – when Newspoll agents were gathering survey data for the first poll of the year.

That poll found voters’ satisfaction with the PM is the lowest it has been since Mr Turnbull deposed Mr Abbott, dropping six percentage points to 34 per cent.

No sniping

“When it comes to budget repair,” Mr Abbott told the MBA, “the reality is that this government has been in office – not in power.”

Nary a public statement has been made by Labor since that doesn’t include a repetition of that damning assessment – an assessment, it should be said, that likely echoes the public’s growing concern that the Turnbull government doesn’t quite know what it is doing.

Mr Abbott has disregarded his promise not to “undermine” Turnbull. Photo: Getty

Meanwhile, Mr Abbott continued to niggle his successor, having coffee with Pauline Hanson to demonstrate he could work with the new Senate crossbench, and reportedly tearing strips off Treasurer Scott Morrison for abandoning “the base” by making it less easy for rich people to use the superannuation system as a tax lurk.

No wrecking

However Mr Abbott’s pot stirring last week is relatively tame compared to the shenanigans he’s gotten up to this week while the PM has been overseas attending a string of international summits.

Two out of ten questions to Malcolm Turnbull in Pohnpei were about what Tony Abbott thinks. #goodgrief

— David Crowe (@CroweDM) September 9, 2016

Dropping almost any pretence at being a team player, Mr Abbott departed from the government line on donation reform following the Dastyari saga, giving an exclusive interview to the Fairfax media calling for wide-ranging changes to the political donation system.

He also granted an interview to Alan Jones, telling the conservative shock jock about his opposition to the government’s proposed superannuation reforms and suggesting the PM’s swift calling of a royal commission in the NT youth detention system was a panic response.

.@TurnbullMalcolm defends NT Royal Commission into youth detention after @TonyAbbottMHR criticised the move #auspol https://t.co/TogSy5GjV1

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 9, 2016

And after making his annual pilgrimage to an Indigenous community this past week, Mr Abbott drew a line in the sand during an interview with the ABC on the question of a treaty with Australia’s first people. The former PM then capped off the week by publishing a column in The Australian reminding readers of his (government’s) efforts to reduce welfare dependency in remote Aboriginal communities.

Malcolm Turnbull will not thank his predecessor for these interventions, each of which are aimed at either casting the PM in a bad light or wedging him between his stated principles and the demands of the Coalition’s hard right.

However he is at least in part responsible for what Tony Abbott is subjecting him to.

These are strategies also similar to those used by Malcolm Turnbull to bring Mr Abbott down.

Perhaps there has never been a better time to remind political players and observers alike – he who lives by the sword, ultimately will die by the sword.

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