He has fallen far below the standard expected of him. Approval ratings have fallen. Teflon Bill has fallen flat on his face. Of course he's not the only one who's fallen. Just the most public.
Many people fall, in real or apparent ways, and live with the consequences every day.
He'll hear about it all the way home - how he didn't make it. With tears in her eyes she feels like a complete failure, a worthless write-off. For 35 years she's dug as deep as she can. But every morning as she puts the coffee on she steels herself for what she knows will be another round of cynical comments and cutting remarks about laundry not folded just so, or eggs boiled a little hard, or hair not done up right, grey and wrinkles beginning to show. Whether appropriate or not, a bar of expectation was set in each of their lives, and they failed to clear it.