The rise of self-service checkouts at the local supermarket offers a glimpse into what drove the Trump phenomenon in the US, Kevin Rudd believes.
The former Labor prime minister was discussing voter dissatisfaction and the new US Republican administration during a live conversation on social media.
He pointed to concerns about employment security and perceptions of static or declining living standards, as artificial intelligence and mechanisation cut a swathe through traditional patterns of employment.
"We've all seen at our shopping centres around the world what happens now with the replacement of people working at checkouts,' he said during the Facebook chat on Wednesday.
"This trend will continue, so it is the objective decrease in job security and in many cases income security that is fuelling so much of the political sentiment being raged against mainstream political parties around the world, including in the United States."
In a sense, President Donald Trump represented a force beyond the normal policy parameters of the party machine.
"President Trump in many respects is an independent," Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd, who didn't expect a Trump victory in November, said he wouldn't be surprised if the president's controversial measures - including this week's visa suspension - garner high levels of support.
But there were concerns Muslims in America would feel they were or would be victimised following the decision to stop passport holders from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US.
"These are live concerns," Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd also raised the risk of a trade war following Mr Trump's decision to withdraw America from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks and his threatened tariff on Chinese imports.
"Where does that end," he said.
"There is a real danger that once you start tit-for-tat in trade that it escalates."
