What ultimately cost Tony Abbott the top job

Tony Abbott lived by the political sword, and died by it.

Australia's 28th prime minister has become the latest major politician in this manic new age of instantly disposable leaders to be torn down.

He was elected two years ago to lead Australia with a handsome majority, in the lower house at any rate. But now, he is the first Liberal PM to be voted out by his party since 1971, losing a leadership ballot 54-44 to Malcolm Turnbull.

How did it come to this?

Abbott, 57, was in some respects an unlikely Liberal PM.

He's an action man. A top university boxer who reportedly fought like a threshing machine; a lifesaver, a rural firefighter, an iron man. Cartoonists usually drew him in his red budgie smugglers.

He's incredibly competitive, in sport or politics. That was evident from his days as a warrior of the right in Sydney University politics.

He has the walk of a gunslinger from the old west.

Yet he's a thinker, a Rhodes Scholar, the author of a book about his political philosophy, which is revealingly titled Battlelines. He's aware of the complexities of life, particularly for Aborigines whose needs he champions and among whose remote settlements he's spent significant time.

Abbott is also Catholic. Very Catholic. Jesuit-educated and for a time a seminarian. B.A. Santamaria was a big early influence.

At times, his Catholicism has appeared to unduly influence him - particularly when he was John Howard's health minister. His opposition to the abortion drug RU486 is a case in point.

He was the "Mad Monk" and "Captain Catholic".

In short, he wasn't your typical Liberal leader. The most atypical, perhaps, since John Gorton, the one who was overthrown in 1971.

When Howard was voted out in 2007, Abbott was scarcely considered as leader. After Peter Costello knocked the position back, Abbott considered running but worked out he didn't have the numbers. Brendan Nelson, to the surprise of many, beat Malcolm Turnbull.

Nelson made no inroads against Kevin Rudd and was soon replaced by Turnbull. The new leader split the party through his support for an emissions trading scheme.

It was this issue, above all, that enabled Abbott to defeat Turnbull by a single vote in December 2009.

Many in Labor assumed Abbott would implode. He had, after all, suggested asbestos campaigner and dying mesothelioma sufferer Bernie Banton may not have been "pure of heart in all things".

Instead, he surprised everyone with his discipline.

Rudd was tossed out in 2010 - with some help from Abbott, but mainly because he was so difficult to work with - and Julia Gillard came in.

In the election that followed a few months later Abbott outcampaigned her, or at least did fewer silly things. The result was a draw, with Gillard subsequently forming government with the support of the bulk of the crossbench.

For the next three years Abbott singlemindedly set about destroying the Labor government.

His most effective attack, which he hammered relentlessly, was Gillard's election campaign "lie" that she wouldn't introduce a carbon tax - the "great big tax on everything".

Another big target was the ever-growing flood of asylum-seeker boats.

More generally, much that the government tried to do was opposed. Labor called him Dr No.

And it worked. In desperation Labor turned back to Rudd, who perhaps saved a couple of seats but couldn't stop Abbott's march to the prime ministership.

He was hailed as the best opposition leader in history.

But running the country is another matter.

He got some things done. The carbon and mining taxes went, the boats were all but stopped, major free trade agreements were completed.

But getting savings measures through a diabolical Senate was beyond him even though he railed against the "debt and deficit disaster" Labor had left.

There were several problems. His team's ability to negotiate with the Senate crossbench was clearly inadequate, Labor successfully labelled some measures unfair, and above all Abbott was breaking his own election promises.

Abbott made a string of promises about cutting funding in the campaign. Now, with few buying his argument that they were negated by his umbrella promise to fix the debt and deficit, he was being undone by the same accusations of lying that he'd made against Labor.

The silly thing was he'd have won the election without making promises. But he was so determined to leave no stone unturned, no vote uncultivated, in his drive to power that he set a trap for himself.

And the whole thing was aggravated by his paid parental leave scheme. This was very much a personal decision, a captain's choice. Never mind that it ran counter to his determination to cut spending.

Captain's calls over knights and dames, particularly knighting Prince Philip, also hurt the monarchist PM.

To save himself from a leadership threat in February, Abbott dumped the PPL and promised to keep out of the knighthood business, but it left him looking foolish.

There were also mutterings from within about not being consulted enough. Feeding into this was widespread dislike - perhaps even fear - of his chief of staff Peta Credlin.

None of this would have mattered much if he'd remained popular in the electorate.

But as first term state Liberal governments fell in Victoria and Queensland, the polls turned savagely against Abbott and his government.

And nothing concentrates the minds of MPs like polls that tell them they'll soon be out of a job.

Abbott's allegiance to one MP in particular has proven to be a major contributing factor in his downfall.

Speculation has been rife in recent weeks that Joe Hockey would be dumped as treasurer.

Few would have suspected though it would be a consequence of Tony Abbott losing the prime ministership.

Now Malcolm Turnbull has taken the Liberal leadership from Abbott, Hockey is certain to lose his job as treasurer.

Turnbull said the Abbott government had not been successful in providing the economic leadership the nation needed.

"It is not the fault of individual ministers," he said.

"Ultimately, the prime minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership ... he has not been capable of providing the economic confidence that business needs."

But a treasurer also has to provide economic leadership.

The economy has slowed, unemployment has risen and a budget surplus seems no nearer than it did under Labor.

There is also a raft of reviews hanging in the air - on tax, federation and competition.

And just as Abbott's popularity has sunk, Hockey's has collapsed.

Abbott and Hockey have been joined at the hip since the coalition came to power in 2013 - through the tough times of Hockey's first budget and a series of political distractions that have dogged two years of government.

Just on Monday, Hockey told 3AW radio the prime minister has always had his support and always will.

"We go back a very long way and I know that Tony Abbott is absolutely dedicated to the best interests of the nation," the treasurer said.

"He is the most selfless and dedicated person I have met in politics".

Depending how the cards fall, Scott Morrison is seen as the minister most likely to replace Hockey.

Morrison was switched from his successful time in the immigration portfolio to give him more experience in budgetary matters as the social services minister.

It would be a tough gig for Morrison to pick-up the pieces - that assumes he doesn't challenge for leadership himself.