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It's an exit that marks the end of an era.
Outgoing Liberal Party chief Brian Loughnane formed one-third of a ruling triumvirate, along with former prime minister Tony Abbott and his chief of staff Peta Credlin that ruled the Liberal Party since December 2009.
His decision to quit as Liberal Party chief marks the end of a 12-year stint at Liberal Party headquarters running the organisational wing of the party.
Loughnane was the first to arrive at the apex of power of the Liberal Party's political and organisational wings, taking over in late 2003, and he will be the last to leave.
Credlin became chief of staff to her first Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, in 2008 - the highest staffing job in the parliamentary party; Abbott was the last to arrive - he did not become party leader until December 1, 2009.
Together, they formed a devastating trio that took Julia Gillard to the brink of defeat in 2010, after just one term of Labor in power. Abbott, drilled in the backrooms of the Liberal Party by the at times brutal, and brutally effective Credlin and Loughnane, swept all before him in 2013, defeating Kevin Rudd and claiming the nation's top political job.
While Abbott was the front man and Credlin the better known of the husband and wife team - a fact that hurt her more than helping her in the end - Loughnane remained largely out of the public eye, but he was no less important.
All three, along with the Coalition leadership group, were on the early morning phone hook-ups and it was Loughnane who established campaign HQ, marshalled the party's resources in marginal seats and worked with operatives such as polling guru Mark Textor to target and win over voters.
Former prime minister Abbott said on Thursday, "at the daily leadership meeting he constantly focussed on the "main game" – not playing politics but delivering prosperity and security to the Australian people. As the son of a Galway immigrant and the product of small town Victoria, he had a sure sense of what really mattered to most Australians".
As the Liberal Party's fortunes sagged under Abbott, Loughnane and Credlin faced conflict of interest accusations from internal critics who complained - fairly or unfairly - they could not complain to the party director about the performance of the political wing of the party and specifically, the Abbott office, because the pair were married.
In 2015, Loughnane also faced growing complaints about transparency issues in relation to the party's finances.
Those complaints came to a head in February, when former Liberal party federal treasurer Phil Higginson emailed members to complain about the alleged conflicts of interest involving the prime minister's chief of staff and the federal director. He questioned "how this party ever let a husband and wife team into those roles", asserted that in corporate Australia "a managing director would never allow his executive assistant to be the wife of the chairman" and outlined 11 ways to improve the party's governance.
Abbott, Loughnane and Credlin stared down the criticism and saw off Higginson, but untold damage was done.
After working for Shell, Loughnane's career with the Liberal Party began in 1992 with the Kennett government; he served as chief of staff to Alexander Downer and John Howard in opposition days and former defence minister John Moore in government before taking over the Victorian division of the party from 2000 to 2003.
He then returned to Canberra. Loughnane's period as federal director saw him win his first campaign in 2004, when John Howard defeated Mark Latham; in 2007, he experienced his first federal defeat as Howard was beaten by Rudd and in 2010, when Abbott won more seats in the Parliament than Gillard, but the Labor Party formed government.
Finally in 2013, Abbott thrashed Rudd, though Labor's three year civil war played no small part in that victory.
As he said on Twitter on Friday, Loughnane liked to think of his record as "2 wins, 1 loss and a draw!" After his first victory, in 2004, Loughnane told the National Press Club in his post mortem speech that "this vote was for the Coalition and for John Howard. We won because the people voted for us rather than against Labor", that party research showed "we found 65 per cent of people in key marginal seats agreed with the proposition that Coalition was better able to keep the economy strong. Our lead over Labor on this question was 49 per cent" and that, "In a nutshell, Australians felt they could trust John Howard and the Coalition to keep the country secure and the economy strong".
That emphasis on Liberal economic competence was a key theme that was to run through subsequent campaigns in 2007 - when Kevin Rudd claimed the mantle of "economic conservative" to neutralise Howard's advantage - and more successfully in 2010 - when Abbott's promised to "end the waste, repay the debt, stop the big new taxes and, above all else, stop the boats" underscored the focus on the economy, and on national security.
Loughnane later told the National Press Club that "economic considerations were paramount" in the campaign.
And in 2013, after Abbott's victory, Loughnane told the Press Club that Labor in government had "renounced the Hawke/Keating model of economic responsibility" and foreshadowed "there are therefore important decisions the Abbott government will have to make in the next 18 months to rebuild our economy and strengthen the budget".
Those important decisions, however, turned out to include the Abbott government breaking a slew of promises in its harsh first budget in May 2014 - a budget from which the Coalition never truly recovered in the poll, and which played no small part in the ultimate removal of Abbott, and thus Credlin and eventually Loughnane.
In early 2015, rumours swept the party that Loughnane was preparing to quit and head to Canada and work on Conservative leader Stephen Harper's election campaign. He told colleagues that move would not happen, but in his resignation statement said he had told Abbott the 2013 campaign "would, in all probability, be my last as federal director".
"With the recent changes in the parliamentary leadership and the consequent need to review our planning for the next campaign, I believe now is an appropriate time for the party to appoint a new federal director to lead the organisation into the next campaign.
What Loughnane's statement did not say is that Turnbull and he were not close when the member for Wentworth last led the party - nor did Turnbull get along with Credlin.
Turnbull, however, praised Loughnane's "outstanding" work over four elections, noting "his campaign skills, astute political advice, efficient party management and wise counsel have been appreciated by every leader he has served, including me".
In a statement Howard said: "He always behaved in a professional manner, fully understanding the respective roles of the parliamentary party and the party organisation. The Liberal Party always does best when there is full co-operation and respect between the parliamentary and organisational wings of the party".
As one of the party's longest serving directors, history will likely judge Loughnane's record of two wins in four election campaigns kindly.
