Economic turbulence, leaks from inside No 10, accounts - denied - of fisticuffs between ministers, plummeting poll ratings, increasing bouts of indiscipline, talk of plots and seething discontent on the back benches. Sound familiar?

John Major once supposedly remarked that the problem with being Prime Minister was that once you crossed the threshold of No 10, you began to lose touch with reality.

Given the rising tide of problems facing Gordon Brown, it is difficult to believe how the latest incumbent of the Downing Street throne is not fully aware of the storm raging outside his front door. And yet as events crowd in and helmets are handed round, the bunker mentality is sometimes difficult to avoid. There are, after all, two long years to the next General Election.

Yesterday, a positively euphoric Shadow Chancellor George Osborne declared that the onetime Iron Chancellor's reputation for economic competence was "in tatters" after a poll suggested voters no longer trusted the Brown government on the economy with 68% saying they were "not confident at all" in its ability to weather the gathering economic storm.

The PM, on the stump backing the one-time Labour pariah Ken Livingstone for London mayor, insisted his every waking hour was now devoted to ensuring Britain survived the global economic crisis.

Today, in a speech to City fund managers, Mr Brown will note how the IMF last week forecast Britain would be the fastest growing of the world's major economies this year. Yet, he will also note swiftly how no country can insulate itself from the current market volatility and how "there can never be any room for complacency". He will urge more market transparency to stave off any future crisis, a message he will take to America when he meets Wall Street bankers later this week. Yet as he flits Stateside, the discontent in the governing party bubbles away on several issues, most notably the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

On this, Michael Connarty, the Labour MP for Linlithgow, yesterday talked of the party's core voters feeling "betrayed" and that "hundreds of thousands" of them would abandon it at the next General Election if Chancellor Alistair Darling did not offer compensatory measures to alleviate the financial pain felt by an estimated five million low-paid people.

Last night, his Manchester colleague Graham Stringer noted: "High expectations not being realised has disappointed people. It's sorrow more than anger with Gordon."

While all this self-flagellation is going on David Cameron and his team can enjoy seeing their fortunes rise in the opinion polls. And yet the Tories cannot afford to get too uppity. One Shadow Cabinet Minister observed: "People might be falling out of love with Labour but they have not yet fallen in love with us."

Two years to an election is not only enough time for the governing party to see its fortunes deteriorate but also long enough for the wheels to come off the Opposition's wagon.

Yesterday, Mr Osborne was asked about the 10p tax rate and, if he opposed it, how he would find the £7bn it was due to create for the Exchequer?

He shrugged his shoulders and insisted this was not a matter for him.

Yvette Cooper, for the UK Government, accused the Conservatives of "empty promises and opportunism" and sought to raise the Tory bogeyman of old, saying Britain did not want to return to three million unemployed.

However, despite reassurances, the administration is looking bruised. It might be far too early to see Mr Brown standing in Downing Street's rose garden, challenging the "bastards" in his own party to "put up or shut up".

Yet if Boris Johnson wins the London mayorship, if Labour get hammered in the English elections and if the UK Government loses its battle on 42-day pre-charge detention, the theme tune to the twilight zone might once again be heard making its way down Downing Street.