If PM Luxon can be this profoundly unpopular with people and still be prime minister, it begs the question,

who are the groups with the real political power keeping people like Mr Luxon in place for this long?

Business editors at NZME, CEOs of supermarkets, tobacco, banking, and energy corporations, plastic toy billionaires, The NZ initiative, have all been his staunch cheerleaders, or groups that his government has helped push to (sometimes record) profits.

You won't see their support in any polls. But you will see it spread across TV, op-eds, and print media.

The power and influence of a corporate-owned for-profit media can't be underestimated.

I guess it's why billionaires around the world are buying up newspapers. Including that Canadian billionaire Grenon in NZ taking over the New Zealand Herald.

Newspapers are less and less profitable with each passing year, but still hugely influential as king-makers.

Own them and online media and you own power over a democracy.