Or maybe he's never been a genius in the first place.
Really the only 'smart' thing he is good at is fukking with Stocks to benefit him; he doesn't really code, and he got fired from his CEO position from X.com and PayPal for being a poor CEO. Prior to Twitter, Musk could hide behind the vanity of Genius because he had talent people at Space X and TESLA designing stuff. If we are comparing him to Steve Jobs as well, Steve Jobs wouldn't design the thing... however he had a vision, and wanted everyone to follow it for a product.
Elon touts something, but really he is like, 'Make Something for Me' and then they do. Elon then smiles and nods, having no input to give, but smiling like he was responsible for thinking it up.