Nicholas II was incompetent and didn’t know it. That’s one of the biggest problems with monarchy.
Heh... yeah... another drawback to monarchy is, you’re born into it, don’t have any idea how to get out of it (except death or abdication), or any kind of prospect for a different role in life.
Mostly, the tsars were at their best when they took their countries to war. The WWI Russians were successful by fits and starts in the east — the same pattern the British and French had — but the Germans had laid their plans well to counter the looming two front disaster of a war, and like their Austrian allies had the trained manpower and modern artillery, as well as a more appropriate command structure.
The Russians anticipated decisive victories, but there weren’t any to be had, so the long, costly stalemate (which wasn’t costing the Central Powers as dearly until after the Russians were out and the US was in) and failure to prepare for the conflict (the French and Russians colluded before the war, which was something which had been prevented by Bismarck’s treaty system) led to terrible shortages and economic collapse of the Russian homeland.
Plus, I think I recall something about how the Germans smuggled Lenin back into Russia aboard some train...