When Malcolm Turnbull opted for an eight-week campaign, the Coalition must have believed such a gruelling program would surely expose weaknesses in Bill Shorten and his team.

So far, though, the opposite appears to be the case.

Polling shows Mr Shorten and the Labor Party continue to gain favour among the electorate while the Coalition seems to be going backwards.

Where Mr Shorten once lagged more than 30 points behind Mr Turnbull as the nation’s preferred prime minister, a survey found that gap has been halved.

Such a scenario seemed impossible when Mr Turnbull took over leadership of the Coalition last September.

At the time, he was nearly everybody’s favourite Liberal – but especially among those who would never consider voting conservative. That is now proving to be a real problem for the government.

Mr Turnbull is struggling to galvanise support within his own party – where many see him as too socially progressive – while those who support his views on issues such as climate change and same-sex marriage are already entrenched in the Labor camp.

The other problem for the government is that political momentum is very hard to stop. Once the electorate develops an appetite for change, only change tends to satisfy that hunger.

Labor started well behind the government in the race for The Lodge but is gaining every week.

And that’s why the government must surely wish there were not so many weeks yet to run between now and polling day, even if this is a problem of its own making.

Mr Shorten is still considered the outsider in this race but pundits now rate him a much greater chance of winning than even a month ago.

It’s long been said that a week is a long time in politics.

If so, then eight weeks is an eternity – as Mr Turnbull is quickly learning.