THE most remarkable aspect of Barnaby Joyce's resignation from the Deputy Prime Minister's role was the length of time it took him to see sense.

Whether it's coincided with another accusation of sexual misconduct coming out of Western Australia, only time will tell, but the writing has been on the wall since the news first broke that his marriage had broken down and he was living with his pregnant former staffer rent-free in a pad provided by friend Greg Maguire, whose companies in Mr Joyce's electorate of New England benefited from government work.

None of these are things that endear you to the electorate, colleagues or media.

Just months after a ringing endorsement in the by-election brought about by his failure to renounce his New Zealand citizenship, he found himself on the nose with the electorate last week, with 61 per cent of voters wanting him on the back bench.

Mr Joyce should have been getting the message clearly from all sides.

The media and the opposition were after him for potential misuse of public money, his Coalition colleagues couldn't stand another scandal coming from his office and his own party was terrified of the backlash inevitably heading their way from their deeply conservative electorates.

Whatever - it's all over now.