Robust Ascents in a Random Permutation

Let $\sigma$ be a uniformly random permutation of $\{1, 2, \dots, n\}$. An ascent at position $i$ (for $1 \le i \le n-1$) is a position where $\sigma(i) < \sigma(i+1)$. Find the expected number of ascents.

Additional robustness twist: before observation, an independent random relabeling of outcome labels is applied. Compute the same target and justify invariance.