Liz Truss and Boris Johnson have caused public trust in politics to go into “freefall”, according to a new poll.
The YouGov survey for the IPPR think-tank revealed trust in politicians has fallen by nine percentage points in just 18 months.
Two-thirds of British voters now believe MPs are “merely out for themselves”.
Only 4% of the public believe politicians are doing their best for the country.
Johnson was forced to resign in July after a string of controversies, while Truss only lasted six weeks before she was also brought down by her own MPs.
Harry Quilter-Pinner from the IPPR said there had to be “deep reform of our economy and politics”.
“After a year of chaos which saw sleaze and scandals take down the Johnson government, and the ill-judged mini budget quickly undoing the Truss premiership, trust in politicians is in freefall,” he said.
“Simply changing the prime minister or party in power will not solve the problem. We need deep reform of our economy and politics.”
It took seven years for the last drop in trust of nine points to happen and 42 years before that.
But the last 18 months have seen politics Westminster dominated by partygate, reports of harassment by MPs and vicious infighting and instability within the Tory ranks.
The IPPR said the problem should be tackled by decentralising power and giving new powers to elected mayors.
MPs needed to be more representative of the country, the think-tank said, especially when it came to class.
The report said it was crucial for politicians to be seen to increase living standards if they want to restore the public’s trust in what they do.
Protecting people from the impact of the cost of living crisis and dealing with “creaking” public services was key, the think-tank said.