A decline in the number of royal scandals in the 20 years since Princess Diana's death is being linked to a rise in support among Australians for the monarchy.
Sydney University researcher Luke Mansillo has examined Australia's changing attitudes to Britain's royal family during the past 50 years and has discovered a significant jump in support since Diana's death after a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Just over a third of Australians wanted to retain the Queen as Australia's head of state in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death, but that support has now climbed to about 48 per cent.
And while the royal family has traditionally been much loved by older Australians, it is now young adults in their 20s who are their biggest supporters.
"People who are in their 20s and 30s don't problematise the monarchy and have no memory of the royal scandals from the 1990s," Mr Mansillo told AAP.
"Also, considering how Diana managed to manipulate the media in such a fantastic way she forced the palace to really modernise how they deal with media and introduce a cohesive and structured media strategy across all their royals."
Diana became a darling of the tabloids and women's magazines when she emerged as Prince Charles' girlfriend as a shy 19-year-old in 1980 and married him the following year.
The births of their sons William and Harry were also of huge public interest, but the happiness soon gave way to intrigue as the seemingly fairytale marriage broke down and ended in divorce in 1996 after both Charles and Diana confessed to having affairs.
Four years earlier, the Queen endured an "annus horribilis" as Andrew Morton's sensational book about Diana was released containing claims about how miserable she was in her marriage, Prince Andrew's estranged wife Sarah Ferguson was photographed topless having her toes sucked by her financial advisor, and Princess Anne divorced Captain Mark Phillips.
Mr Mansillo said the scandals took their toll on support for the monarchy, plunging it well below the peak of 60 per cent in the 1960s.
But after hitting a low following Diana's death, support is on trend to return to near its peak largely thanks to the popularity of Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton.
Mr Mansillo said it was hard to judge what could happen to that support when the Queen ends her reign and Charles becomes king and whether more Australians would begin to back calls for a republic.
"It's quite unpredictable considering we have some popular young royals," he said.
