In 1987, President Ronald Reagan’s political fortunes were at their lowest ebb. Midway through his second term in office, his reputation had been battered by the Iran-Contra scandal, a series of legislative setbacks on Capitol Hill and a rapidly advancing sense of political mortality, accelerated by his party’s loss of seats in the 1986 mid-term congressional elections.

The decidedly lame-duck-looking President was urged by Republican aides — and his wife — to shake up his lumbering White House operation, and in February of that year he fired his chief of staff, Donald Regan, and replaced him with the seasoned political veteran Howard Baker. Mr Baker was a former senator, well-connected in congress and well liked inside Washington and out.

Almost immediately, he set about repairing some of the damage; his good relations with the Senate enabled him to defuse the various investigations that were threatening the presidency, and, in focusing Mr Reagan’s attention increasingly on international matters he managed to turn the final two years of that presidency into its most successful phase.

Hoping to repeat history, a number of prominent Republicans in recent weeks have urged the beleaguered George W. Bush to emulate his predecessor and infuse the tired White House with some much needed new blood.

Yesterday, they got their answer. Though Josh Bolten, the man appointed by Mr Bush yesterday to replace Andrew Card as his chief of staff, is almost universally regarded as supremely efficient, competent and genial, the president has clearly signalled his faith in continuity over radical change and has demonstrated once again how much of a premium he places on personal loyalty.

Whatever else he is, Mr Bolten is definitely not an outsider. Indeed for the last five and a half years he has been as much a part of the Bush White House as the ornate woodwork in the Oval Office, serving first as deputy chief of staff and, since 2003, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

He is fiercely loyal to Mr Bush and has known very little political life outside the Bush team.

He joined the then Texas Governor’s campaign in 1999 as policy director, after having lived in London for five years as an investment banker. His most daring escapade was probably his creation of Bikers for Bush, a troupe of politically-motivated motorcycle enthusiasts, an act that earned the Jewish Harley-Davidson-riding Mr Bolten a biker nickname from the president’s team: "Bad Mitzvah".

As such a close insider and adviser to the president, Mr Bolten may disappoint those who had been calling for change, but in reality it was never Mr Bush’s style either to admit to large mistakes or to reach beyond a small cadre of trusted advisers to help him through political difficulties.

His approval ratings stand in the mid-30 per cent range, the lowest of his presidency, brought there by a succession of political disasters: the inept management of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; the failed nomination of the underqualified Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court; and the botched handling of the attempt by the Dubai government to acquire half a dozen US ports this month.

Most of these problems were deemed, perhaps unfairly, to have Mr Card’s fingerprints on them. Mr Card was clearly tired – five-plus years in the White House is a gruelling experience for anybody. But again, Mr Bolten, though younger, does not clearly represent much of an advantage over that.

And yet, perhaps in choosing trusted competence over the novelty of an outsider, Mr Bush may simply be recognising better than his critics the true nature of his difficulties.

The war in Iraq remains the overwhelming challenge confronting his presidency. No reshuffling of the White House deck is likely to make it go away soon.