Leaving aside for a moment Boris Johnson's many character flaws, blunders, fibs and failed cover-ups, his election in 2019 was a positive for this country. The man who is now Britain's caretaker Prime Minister after he resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party, restarted the stalled Brexit process which opened the door for the free trade agreement between the UK and Australia that was signed last December.
He was also one of the three "fathers" of AUKUS and the decision by the US, the UK and Australia to work together to equip the RAN with nuclear powered submarines. With two of the three national leaders who signed off on AUKUS and the free trade agreement now gone Australian politicians, diplomats, and defence and industry leaders will be anxiously waiting to see who eventually moves into the controversially and expensively refurbished apartment above Number 11 Downing Street.
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Will the incoming Prime Minister, faced with cleaning up the mess Mr Johnson has left ahead of the next UK election expected in 2023 or 2024, devote as much attention to the Australia relationship as their predecessor? Will they echo his strong stance on Ukraine or will they try to step it back given the UK's many domestic problems?
The potential for many things to go pear shaped, not just for the UK but for the west, in the wake of this revolution within the British political establishment, is considerable.
If, for example, the Conservatives do lose to Labor at the next election it wouldn't be surprising to see a major policy reset across the board. This might affect relations with the EU, the war in Ukraine, our own defence strategy, and international trade. It's going to be a matter of "watch this space".
While Mr Johnson has often been compared to former US President Donald Trump, with whom he shares many traits such as famous hair, an ability to escape into an alternate reality, the capacity to lie with a straight face, narcissistic tendencies and an impossibly exaggerated belief in his own abilities, he is arguably the more complex character of the two.
"Boris", as Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson rebranded himself at Eton, is not so much a Machiavellian schemer pushing a sinister agenda as a Peter Pan-like figure well aware of his own weaknesses and always seeking attention, praise and, on the many occasions he got things wrong, forgiveness and redemption.
Despite his obsession with Winston Churchill, also a flawed and complex figure with a talent for spinning reverses into victories, Mr Johnson fell far short of greatness. His bad conduct and lies, which led directly to his fall, are a far cry from the strength of character and courage in adversity "the great commoner" displayed over many decades.
Like Trump a child of wealth and privilege, one of Mr Johnson's greatest weaknesses is his belief the rules do not apply to him; even when he and his government were the ones who are making them.
Once branded by former PM David Cameron as the "greased piglet" nobody could quite catch, Mr Johnson's fall has been a death by a thousand cuts. No single scandal can be blamed for bringing him down.
The ultimate cause of his demise is that, to cite a phrase from the Australian vernacular, everybody came to realise he was such a chronic liar that he was "the type of bloke who would have to get somebody else to call his dogs for him". That actually happened.
When the media and the public stopped believing Mr Johnson after "party gate" and the rest he manipulated many of his own colleagues into unknowingly lying on his behalf. That provoked the mass resignation of ministers and staffers this week that finally brought the curtain down. This is not Hamlet, just Death of a Salesman.
