The political fortunes of Australia's wealthiest parliamentarian have turned for the worst.

Almost a decade to the day since Malcolm Turnbull first secured the Liberal Party leadership, his colleagues have again removed him, and again the stated reason is climate policy.

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It's a dramatic political end for a high achiever who has spent 40 years in the public spotlight.

After graduating from Oxford University in the UK, the one-time journalist returned to Australia where he worked as a barrister for prominent figures such as Channel 9 owner Kerry Packer.

Mr Turnbull was an investment banker in the 1980s. ( Supplied: Gary Ede, National Library of Australia, Bib ID: 1113752 )

Then in 1986 the brash young lawyer burst onto the world stage by taking on — and beating — the UK government while acting for retired MI5 spy Peter Wright in the famous "Spycatcher" case.

In 1993 Labor prime minister Paul Keating appointed him as chair of the Republican Advisory Committee and he led the ultimately unsuccessful push for an Australian head of state, bringing him head-to-head with his eventual political nemesis, and staunch monarchist, Tony Abbott.

There were several early attempts at entering Parliament, and even brief flirtations with the Labor side, before Mr Turnbull ultimately secured the safe federal Liberal seat of Wentworth at the 2004 election after an ugly preselection stoush.

During John Howard's final term as prime minister, Mr Turnbull entered Cabinet as minister for environment and water, and his first exposure to the treacherous policy area of climate change.

Mr Turnbull entered Cabinet during John Howard's final term as PM. ( ABC News: David McMeekin )

Following Mr Howard's defeat in 2007, Brendan Nelson beat Mr Turnbull for the Liberal leadership, but poor polling and a failure to dent Kevin Rudd's popularity meant his days were numbered.

On September 16, 2008, Mr Turnbull successfully challenged Mr Nelson and began his first stint as Liberal Party leader.

Mr Turnbull was sworn in as Australia's 29th prime minister in September 2015. ( AAP: Lukas Coch )

The ambitious opposition leader was clearly in a hurry, but his overreach during the so-called "Ute-Gate" scandal was an early bruising political lesson.

His 2009 decision to back Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme drew the ire of many of his colleagues, and in November he faced his first leadership challenge, from Kevin Andrews, surviving 48 votes to 35 — the same margin as Peter Dutton's initial unsuccessful challenge.

Mr Turnbull lost the Liberal leadership in 2009 primarily due to his support for an emissions trading scheme. ( AAP: Alan Porritt )

A week later Mr Turnbull's former frontbench colleague Mr Abbott launched a second tilt for the Liberal leadership, and unexpectedly won by a single vote.

Relegated to the backbench, the defeated leader agonised over his political future during the summer break and in April 2010 announced he would quit parliament.

Former PM and mentor Mr Howard convinced him to change his mind, and after the 2010 election Mr Turnbull was invited onto Mr Abbott's frontbench as shadow communications minister.

During the 2013 election, the pair struck an uneasy truce, standing awkwardly together to unveil the Opposition's alternative National Broadband Network (NBN) policy.

Within two years of Mr Abbott's 2013 election win, Mr Turnbull was able to exact revenge on the man who'd deposed him, citing the unpopular leader's loss of 30 consecutive Newspolls.

Mr Turnbull arriving for the Liberal leadership party room ballot in September 2015. ( AAP )

At the age of 61, a lifelong ambition had finally been realised, but virtually from his earliest days as prime minister Mr Turnbull was beset by his conservative enemies in the Coalition.

Early hopes for wholesale tax reform soon evaporated and the prime minister, armed with a royal commission report into unions, called an unprecedented eight-week double-dissolution election campaign.

Mr Turnbull claimed a narrow election victory in July 2016. ( AAP: Paul Miller )

It was a bruising, near-death experience for the Coalition, with the government only narrowly surviving Labor's so-called "Mediscare" campaign.

The newly re-elected prime minister soon butted heads with another world leader — but ultimately clinched a deal with Donald Trump on asylum seekers.

The relationship between US President Donald Trump and Mr Turnbull got off to a rocky start. ( Reuters: Jonathan Ernst )

At the end of 2017 Mr Turnbull celebrated the passing of same-sex marriage legislation in Parliament, but a string of Newspoll losses as well as defeats in two crucial by-elections halted any of the government's momentum.

On August 21, 2018, the prime minister came narrowly close to losing in a party-room showdown against one-time loyal lieutenant and leading conservative, Mr Dutton.

And almost a decade after first being torn down by his colleagues over climate, the diabolically difficult policy area has again been his undoing.