I do agree with all the points you have raised there, Nightcrawler, except 1.
I think we would have been in recession with Howard/Costello or with Rudd. Sure, Rudd has stuffed up a lot of things, the stimulus included, but even if the Liberals were still in power, we still would have had the GFC and onflowing consequences. If they would have been worse or not I don't know, but they sure would have been there either way.
The Libs were riding the good times of the economic boom in mining that has now slowed down or even collapsed. While the mining kept our economy afloat, our manufacturing sector continues to be moved off-shore, and now that that's pretty much gone, where do we support jobs?