Tony Abbott’s government has limped its way through its two years in power and has been criticised repeatedly for its harsh policies that have chartered a course that many Australians did not vote for.

But now the tone of Abbott’s critics have changed, the gaffe-prone conservative is now being targeted for doing nothing and allowing his government, and the country, to stagnate. After its much maligned federal budget in 2014, the Abbott Government seems to have lost its appetite for economic reform.

The Abbott administration took such a severe beating for its aggressive 2014 budget that it seemed that the government could fall at any time, and now many believe this may have scared Abbott and his team into relaxing their staunch pro-business, pro-austerity economic ideals.

Due to this lack of direction, the economy has suffered. The International Monetary Fund has stepped in and warned that the Australian economy is in desperate need of structural reform, but this call seems to have gone unheard.

A minister within the Abbott government told The Age newspaper: “We have abandoned economic reform… The budget was a joke, it (the 2015 budget) was a give-away budget”. The minister continued with a scathing assessment of the Prime Minister and his Treasurer, Joe Hockey, “Tony and Joe have no capacity to project a vision or an economic narrative… They are useless”.

The economy is not the only area in which the Abbott Government’s stagnation has harmed its own credibility, its stance on social issues has also been compromised by an increasingly reactionary attitude.

The question of same—sex marriage has haunted Tony Abbott for years, and this 2015 has been fraught with challenges for the deeply religious prime minister as landmark moves in Ireland and the United States have placed greater pressure on Australia to move ahead on the issue.

Abbott, who has enforced a blanket ban on any members of his Liberal National Party voting in favour of same-sex marriage, has rejected any discussion within his party on the topic of same-sex marriage despite a number of high profile members of his own party publicly declaring their support for the reform.

Abbott finds it adequate to simply declare that he has not changed his stance on the issue whenever it is raised with him, blatantly ignoring the sustained momentum in the Australian electorate for such a change. Such a mundane and reactionary attitude towards one of the defining social issues of the 21st century has left Abbott isolated.

Economic management and same-sex marriage are just two aspect of Abbott’s stagnation which has drawn heavy criticism for the media and his own party. Political Analyst Peter Hartcher has labelled Tony Abbott a ‘pointless prime minister’, adding that Abbott has seen “the fastest implosion of a prime minister post-war… Abbott’s judgment remains dreadful”.

Members of his own political party have lashed out at the prime minister anonymously through the media as many have become disenfranchised with their leader after he failed to lift his performance after a failed challenge to his leadership in February of this year, less that one year and a half since he took office. One government MP stated, “In February he (Abbott) asked for time… the reality is that nothing has changed and nothing’s improved”.

As his poll numbers continue to slide and talk of yet another leadership challenge begins to circulate, Tony Abbott is facing a crisis of confidence from his own party, but furthermore, he is cementing his place as one of the most reviled leaders in Australia’s history.

As Australia begins to feel the bite of the Abbott Government’s economic inaction and community frustration grows over Tony Abbott’s outdated views on social issues, only disaster awaits the government as the next federal election rears its head and descends upon the embattled prime minister.