Elections are surprisingly poor determinants on whether a Prime Minister will change in the federal government. The following graph has a post-1942 pie chart of Prime Ministers removed by general election (orange) vs those removed by just about everything else (maroon); including death, no-confidence votes, party machinery, constitutional greydom etc.

Even if you remove Howard and Forde, those removed by events other than an election are still in the majority. This suggests that the fury of the electorate is more myth than anything in the national system.