Ed Miliband had a period of relative stability, with a full five-year term in Opposition until David Cameron won a second term.
But according to UK pundits, chaos and division will ensue with the likely election of veteran leftist Jeremy Corbyn. Even if he doesn't get elected, his frustrated backers could undermine a moderate leader, as happened with David Shearer in New Zealand.
To recap what happened here, defeat started with Helen Clark in 2008, a difficult word to use in the same sentence as her name, given her rise in international stature since leaving domestic politics.
It's hard to remember that Phil Goff was leader at all, so many have there been since he succeeded Clark.
Shearer's leadership and confidence was undermined by the party left, who would not be satisfied until they got David Cunliffe.
Cunliffe got his turn for a year but was worse than any of them. If he'd had two years, it would probably have been twice as bad.
He wanted to please everyone to the extent that he didn't know his own mind and couldn't make decisions.
Given the party's record, Andrew Little has already been a successful leader.
The party is functioning more like a competent Opposition than it has for some time.
Little has a strong sense of himself and his party and his own leadership. He takes on John Key with confidence.
He does long-form television interviews on any subject with no notes. He has no fear of his own performance. When asked by a disapproving TV3 reporter whether he thought having a glass of beer at 5am while watching the All Blacks was a good example, he said he would have two glasses if they lost.
He is authentic, and that is harder than it looks when you have a team of advisers telling you what they think you should do.
Little has made the odd slip-up but most people - party members, the media, the public - are in a forgiving frame of mind.
Little is at his best in the House when he is bellowing from an imaginary soapbox. That has prompted National backbenchers to mimic him with phlegm-like guttural emissions, supposedly suggestive of an "angry Andy".
The attacks are no more damaging to Little than was the sight of John Key getting carried away and bellowing to Labour to "get some guts" to back the New Zealand trainers in Iraq.
(But the combination of National's gutturals and Labour's sudden intakes of breath to mimic Key can sound like a menagerie on heat.)
Most importantly for Labour's stability is the fact it is having some political successes and that is down to simplification of their role.
Instead of trying to do everything at once, putting pressure on the Government and coming up with new policies, the caucus has adopted a cricketing approach.
National is batting and Labour is concentrating on bowling, namely putting pressure on the Government to make mistakes, to over-reach, to divert its attentions, to weaken its top order.
Sue Moroney's work on paid parental leave has forced changes by the Government that otherwise would not have happened.
Labour capitalised on National's failings in health and safety reform legislation.
David Parker and the Greens secured an Auditor-General's inquiry into the Saudi sheep deal (though she should be initiating more of her own inquiries), and it was on the right side of the argument before the Government's change of heart on an emergency intake of Syrian refugees.
John Key has dropped a notch or two from extremely popular to just very popular.
With Labour MPs doing their jobs properly, and Annette King doing what good deputies do and helping to manage the caucus, Little has been left to get on with setting some strategic direction for the party.
King's appointment was for a year only, allowing the party to settle after a bruising four-way leadership contest that Little won with union support. The sudden appearance of Jacinda Ardern as fourth in the preferred Prime Minister polls has led to speculation that she would be the logical choice to replace King in November and complement Little - young, female and from Auckland.
Being deputy, however, is not just a titular role and with King's standing so high in the caucus and the party, she will undoubtedly be lobbied to stay on.
She has always been a natural bridge between Labour's factions - while denying that they exist.
They were revived under Goff, Shearer and Cunliffe because each of them identified closely with one of them and trade-offs were needed with the other faction.
Under Little they are dormant.
Well, almost. Reaction in New Zealand to the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon varies, depending on the faction. Some are quietly applauding it as a reinforcement of the left; others see it as a hurdle to electoral success, including David Shearer in a Facebook post this week, when he said it will please those in Britain who "think it is more important to stick to the party's principles than to soften some of their views to win an election".
Little has shown he is not a purist. Central to his leadership campaign last year was Labour dropping its capital gains tax policy - so dear to every purist - because it had been roundly rejected in two elections.
Labour's poll results do not reflect the effort going on under Little to lift its game. They are creeping up slowly or are standing still.
It may not be worth celebrating but, compared to a year ago, that is success.
