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This is a bad sign for a democracy - but if we want to fix it, we need to ask why it's happening. Is it just bad luck? Has leadership got harder, in a polarised country with a destructive media culture? Are good leaders avoiding politics or being selected out once they get there?
Perhaps political careers are too short, making it hard to learn from experience (& from mistakes)? Gladstone was an MP for 34 years before becoming PM, holding three big ministerial jobs. Cameron's entire political career lasted 15. Clegg's just 12. How do they learn the job?
Blair, Cameron and Corbyn had never held a ministerial job before coming leader. May and Brown had only held one post. Apart from Theresa May, Ken Clarke is the only former minister in the House to have been Chancellor, Home Secretary or Foreign Secretary for more than 2 years.
Experience of office comes with a legacy of mistakes & compromises, so it's always tempting to go for a "clean skin". In different ways, Cameron, Corbyn & hopefuls like Javid are all defined by what they represent, rather than what they've done. But that may have costs, too.
Our politics no longer institutionalises experience. Even the civil service has lost much of its institutional memory: when Alistair Darling went to the Treasury in 2007, he struggled to find a single official who'd been in post during a previous recession.
It may not just be nostalgia that makes "elder statesmen" look more impressive. I'd like to see longer, slower political careers, with serious ministerial apprenticeships. But that requires us - the electorate - to be less dazzled by novelty & more forgiving of past mistakes.
