It was the day conscious uncoupling came to Parliament House. A political break-up for the ages, laden with all the drama and high emotion of a Hollywood power couple’s sudden split.

The coalition between the Liberal Party and Nationals has been the great union of Australian politics, surviving triumph and disaster for more than eight decades. Indeed, the partnership predates the parties themselves. Beginning in 1923 with an agreement between the Country and Nationalist parties, the alliance collapsed a few times but has held solid for the past 38 years.

Like so many marriages, it didn’t always make sense when viewed from the outside. The akubra-wearing populists from the bush and the silvertail free marketeers from the city could often make uncomfortable ideological bedfellows. But this yin and yang made the partnership work and, once upon a time, the Coalition into an election-winning machine.

For all their differences, the Nats and Libs were united by a shared mission: keeping Labor out of power. And they’ve been remarkably successful at it, holding power for most of the past century. The union was so strong that when the Liberal Party won outright majorities in 1975, 1977 and 1996 the Coalition was retained and Nationals MPs handed key cabinet positions.

Now – like Brad and Angelina, Tom and Nicole, Hugh and Deborra-Lee – it is over. At least for now.

The Nationals have very much been the junior member of the alliance in modern times, but it was their leader who announced the break-up on Tuesday. As David Littleproud stood beside the fellow members of his leadership team, one could hear the plaintive sound of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You wafting through the parliamentary corridors: “Goodbye, please don’t cry/We both know that I’m not what you need.”

Although often assumed to be about the end of a romance, Parton’s song was written as a farewell to her business partner and mentor, country music legend Porter Wagoner, explaining her decision to pursue a solo career independent of the man who helped make her a star.

Similarly, Littleproud gave the impression he was trying to let Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and her fellow Liberals down gently. “They are going on a journey of rediscovery, and this will provide them the opportunity to do that without the spectre of the National Party imposing their will,” Littleproud said.