By April 1715, Steele's fortunes had shifted dramatically after his exclusion from the House in 1714. He had been elected to Parliament, made manager of Drury Lane Theatre and given a patent for it, been given various sinecure appointments (Deputy Lieutenant of County Middlesex and Surveyor of the Royal Stables at Hampton Court) and been knighted. These offices on the whole represented an expansion of his work as the major Whig propagandist. His notion of using membership in Parliament as the basis for authority as a political writer was now realized. His role as manager and patentee of Drury Lane assured continued Whig control over the stage. His status as baronet gave him a position of dignity that the slurs and cavils of Tory propaganda could not obscure. He had, to all appearances, a happy and growing family. Admittedly, he was still irresponsible in his financial dealings, but he had in all other respects established a firm basis for continuing success. Nonetheless, he was not fully successful. His wife was away in Wales for most of the remaining years of their marriage and died soon after her return. Few of his children survived. His career as theatre manager ended in a dispute with his fellow managers over his failure to fulfil what they saw as his responsibilities. His project for a ship to bring live fish to London collapsed after a promising beginning. He continued to write and speak on political matters, but sometimes found himself at odds with the leaders of his party. After long battles with gout, his health gave way. He managed to put his finances in order and retire to his wife's property in Wales in 1724. His public life was over.

One factor in this decline, I suspect, was that the multiplicity of his activities and concerns precluded adequate attention to any one. During the period between April 1709 when the Tatler started and February 1714 when the Englishman closed, Steele had been heavily involved in writing periodicals, and this gave regularity and discipline to his literary life that seemed absent once he took on such a variety of official functions.