Musk's public persona played out like Barry Bonds - a sure-fire hall of famer who nonetheless felt the need to take massive amounts of steroids in order to receive all the accolades he felt he deserved.
Musk, although not much of an engineer compared to the folks he employs, did some pretty cool things as the public face of both Tesla and SpaceX.

Electric cars became cool - which they decidedly were NOT until the release of the S. (Loved the Karma as well - although that was essentially a Maserati love-child with a Chevy Volt)

His (at the time) almost irrational insistence on a strong, fast, reliable nation-wide network of charging stations that are still the best thing going. He nailed this one.

Not sold on Starship yet - although it's a great show. Those reusable falcon rockets though have strongly impacted our launch capabilities. Who would have believed we'd be landing those boosters back at the pads and reusing them? Strong win here as well.

That should have been enough - but as the last few years have made perfectly clear, he couldn't leave well enough alone. His insatiable desire to actually be the manifestation of fictional Tony Stark is causing (please God) things to unravel.

He's now a laughing stock of more than 1/2 the country, and now seen for who and what he really is. Tony Stark? Lol. He's still be in that first cave promising his terrorist captors that the Jericho missile will be ready in a couple of weeks. Eventually they would have gotten tired of his BS, and I can't wait for the rest of America to wake up as well.