The WA Liberals' long list of election-losing mistakes probably includes not dumping unpopular premier Colin Barnett last year when it became clear he would cost them the election, frontbencher Joe Francis says.
Mr Francis says the Liberals were also dysfunctional and had broken promises, while Mr Barnett was surrounded by "yes men".
Mr Francis, who was a likely leadership candidate but looks set to lose his Perth seat of Jandakot, says a different leader may not have delivered the Liberals a third term, but would have saved a lot of seats.
He made the comments while speaking frankly about the party's failings following its massive defeat on Saturday.
The party had the chance to change leaders when then transport minister Dean Nalder signalled he would challenge the two-term premier.
But for those who weren't in Mr Nalder's camp, the move galvanised their support for Mr Barnett.
"By then, we were locked in," Mr Francis told reporters on Monday.
"The mood of the party room just was not there and obviously there will be a lot of good members of parliament who have now lost their seats who will regret not speaking up at the time.
"The premier seemed to have been cocooned somewhat by people in his office from the reality of what was happening in the electorate.
"Colin was wrapped in cotton wool by people who just said yes to him."
He said some MPs should have stood up to Mr Barnett, but there was a lot of dysfunction between their offices.
"You shouldn't feel intimidated by having to ring one of your colleagues ever at all, you shouldn't be intimidated by having to talk to the media team in the premier's office," he said.
"It got to the point where some people didn't even bother picking up the phone."
While Mr Barnett last week said he'd go quietly to the backbench if the Liberals lost the election, Mr Francis said he expected the 66-year-old would leave parliament and trigger a by-election.
Mr Francis criticised his former boss for "having a crack at the media" when attacks should have been aimed at the Labor party, referring to him recently telling reporters who pressed him on the One Nation deal to lift their game.
Mr Francis said he was a "big fan" of Mr Barnett but just wanted to be totally honest about the party's failings.
The Liberals owed apologies for broken promises, which had made voters lose trust in the party, he said.
"Politicians make mistakes all the time but we need to have the decency to say we got it wrong and to say sorry - that just has not happened and for that, I accept some of the responsibility."
Mr Francis said he was speaking up because some of his colleagues were in denial about what went wrong.
"We need to be honest with the public.
"We appreciate that we made mistakes, we are sorry for them, for the last eight-and-a-half years.
"We gave a lot of reasons for people to vote against us."
Mr Barnett has said the main reason for the loss was the "it's time" factor after eight years in power.
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