But the manner of the departure doesn't disguise the reasons behind it.

Losing one cabinet minister around shortcomings in their conduct could be called a misfortune, losing three in six months suggests that the problem isn't just those who've been found wanting but the prime minister too.

Report reveals Raab bullying details - live politics updates

Because if you step away from the noise Mr Raab's generated over what he perceived as unfair treatment at the hands of this inquiry and civil servants, the verdict is clear: the deputy prime minister has been forced to resign after Adam Tully, an independent KC, upheld the charge of bullying against him.

It follows the resignation of Nadhim Zahawi in January after the party chairman was found to have broken the ministerial code over his handling of his tax affairs. Gavin Williamson, meanwhile, resigned from cabinet last November over bullying claims.

It was Mr Sunak who put all three men in his cabinet even as he promised to lead a government of "integrity, professionalism and accountability".

Sympathisers might say he's been unlucky, opponents will say he's disingenuous. Either way, what these events do is raise serious doubts about the prime minister's judgement and whether he is really, as he says he is, a break from the past.

Because what we do know is that Mr Sunak was told directly about what some thought was Mr Raab's "unacceptable behaviour" long before he became prime minister.

There was talk around Westminster about Mr Williamson too, while newspaper reports regarding Mr Zahawi being under investigation over his tax affairs surfaced long before Mr Sunak put him into cabinet.

And still, he pressed ahead.

For Mr Raab and Mr Williamson these cabinet jobs were all about being rewarded for installing Mr Sunak into No 10. Spoils of victory which are now biting back and burning through Mr Sunak's political capital.

In his own interests of fulfilling his image as the prime minister of integrity and high standards, the PM could have sacked Mr Raab to make an example of him, or at least put a clear distance between himself and his deputy.

Instead, he spoke of his great sadness that Mr Raab had to go as he rattled his achievements and praised his character. You'd almost forget in that exchange of letters that Mr Raab was found to have done anything wrong at all - and that has fallout for the prime minister in Westminster and beyond.

Read more:
Raab resigns: The key findings from the bullying investigation that sealed his fate
Dominic Raab's resignation letter in full - and Rishi Sunak's reply

For the civil service, there might be in some quarters quiet resentment that the prime minister looks like he's glossing over bad behaviour.

As one former senior civil servant put it to me on Friday, the Tolley investigation was "always going to be complicated, because Raab wasn't a shouter and it all comes down to the perception of bullying, which makes it difficult to make a judgement".

But this figure also made the point that the weight of the complaints - eight complaints with a number of different complainants - "did make this exceptional". "It just doesn't happen. So in that sense I'm not surprised [Raab's gone]".

Another civil servant who worked with Mr Raab seemed resigned - and rather withering - to his former boss's combative response: "There's nothing surprising about the boxer guy coming out swinging."

For Mr Sunak's political opponents, it helps them politically attack a prime minister who seems to have be having some success in proving to the public that he is different to predecessors brought down by a mix of poor conduct and incompetence.

Just look at what Labour's Starmer had to say when Mr Raab resigned: "What this shows is the continual weakness of the prime minister because there's a double weakness here. He should never have appointed him in the first place, along with other members of the cabinet that shouldn't have been appointed. And then he didn't sack him.

"And even today, it's Raab who resigned, rather the prime minister who acts…in the end, after 13 years, it just demonstrates that no matter how many times you change the person at the top, you've essentially got a party that just can't deliver, just can't govern."

The prime minister will want to move on from this quickly, getting away from politics and scandal and back to his agenda of getting on with implementing his pledges.

But losing your deputy over bullying can't but tarnish you, however you spin it.

Mr Raab doesn't seem minded to let this go - writing an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph brimming with anger about this "Kafkaesque saga" and asking for an independent review not just of "systematic leaking" of claims to the media but the conduct of senior staff in the Department of Justice.

All of this coming less than two weeks before the public go to the polls in the first major test for Mr Sunak at the ballot box, he will hope that this scandal doesn't undo the Sunak reset.

But if it does, he only really has himself to blame.