Could the axis during ww2 have better leaders than they did in actual history? IF so how?

Thanks for the disclaimer but not needed as there are plenty of discussion both here and on other forums about, what if the Axis did better, as long as we follow the rules of the forum, everything is fine.

If Italy stays out, Libya likely becomes Italian majority and remins Italian to this day. i can see them keeping Italian Somaliland and the Dodecanese as well. Ethiopia will be let go once the Moose dies, though i doubt the Ethiopian Empire is re-installed.

stevep, American hist, The Moose was born in 1883, so he likely is to die of natural causes some time in the mid to late 1960s... which is not a very good time for a huge power struggle in an important European nation, given some world events are likely to be similar (American struggles for civil rights et al). Oh, and if Italy has remained neutral in WWII, it also keeps the bits of territory that were ceded from Italy to Tito's Yugoslavia in OTL and likely has a "de facto" sphere of influence over Austria as well.

I think Germany's problems predate the ascension of the Nazis.   The Weimar Republic was already cheating on the Versailles Treaty, and both von Papen and Schleicher both asked von Hindenburg to turn the republic into a dictatorship.  They might be a path to better leaderships, but better leadership would start with avoiding the war in the first place. 

That said, with the Nazis in power any war was effectively lost in January of 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor.  See Adam Tooze's book, The Wages of Destruction.  As Lady Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is sooner or later you run out of other people's money.    Germany was skirting bankruptcy for the duration of the Nazi regime.   They built a war machine that was unsuited to strategic victory.    Wars had to be short, cheap and leave the target country relatively intact for looting to finance Germany.  They also pushed the maximums of manpower and production, so significant changes mean resources come from elsewhere.   As Stuart Slade said of the Luftwaffe, more trainers means less fighters.   Strategic bombers mean a lot less fighters.   

I don't know that Germany could have replaced Hitler pre-war., between 1933 and 1939    Prior to the Night of the Long Knives, Ernst Röhm might have been a replacement, but obviously the rest of the party wasn't going to let that happen.  

Replacing Mussolini I think might be easiest; Victor Emmanuel could do it, and probably should have done it when the Lira was heavily devalued in the mid-1930s.  However another fascist is just as likely to continue the poor policies.

I have my doubts about Japan as well.   I don't think Tojo can be replaced unless there is a civil war between the navy and the army.   And the navy might lose that any case.  

My brief thoughts, 

Copying my own post from Axis History:

My assessment of Goering is that he rather missed his vocation. But for the accident of being born a German, he would have made a typical South American dictator - strutting around in gaudy uniforms, weighed down with so many medals that he can hardly stand up straight, and living in luxury on ill-gotten gains - but not all that interested in actually _fighting_ anyone. Recall Julius Caesar's remark about men who are fat. It's often the _austere_ dictators that you really have to worry about. Goering, I suspect, would have been looking to wallow in luxury and admire his stolen artworks - not to conquer the world.

Also Interesting to think what his post-release life would have been like had he been sentenced to prison rather than execution. Imagine Goering on American or British talk shows in the 1960s and 70s?

the London Poles would have been happy to take the Oder Neisse territories AND retain the Eastern Borderlands - a veritable Polish Empire.

For this pod, I wish evil Hitler to be removed as soon as possible. Once, he first starts interfering with choices that prevented an axis victory, like during Dunkirk when he stopped the German army from destroying the British expedition army.

Invading the USSR wasn't necessarily a bad idea. It was a bad idea to invade Russia when Hitler did it; which nazie potential leader might prevent Germany from invading Russia as they did historically?

Which nazie or Japanese leader might improve cooperation between these two nations? Indeed, the nations didn't have a lot In common nor in collaboration, but these nations could have had additional friendliness, such as exchanging technology, Strategy, and goals.

It would be intriguing if a chain reaction could have developed for all of the axis nations to have good leaders

Also, which axis puppet states could have had better leaders?

How could Italy have been more robust, and what if it initially decided not to go to war until 1942, which its leaders said was when its military Would you be ready?