Why history might hold the answer for stricken Liberals

New Liberal leader Sussan Ley faces an uphill battle to rebuild after the party's election loss. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, as the aphorism goes.

For the Liberal Party, the lessons to be learned after a historic election defeat eerily resemble a re-run of a schooling the party received decades earlier.