I'll give you that his marriage probably wasn't great. However, it was kept out of the limelight so we didn't really know. I don't buy though that he always resented having moral constraints.
Severe alcoholics like Nick eventually get wet brain. That will change their entire personality. Inhibitions that once existed no longer exist. The whole "drunk mans words are truth" thing is BS because alcohol turns off a lot of your inhibitions. Those inhibitions that turn off are also integral parts of your personality. For example, if you're drunk and say you hate your kids, do you actually? No. Not necessarily. Maybe you hate them for a moment when they do something bad. But you don't actually hate them. I don't think you guys give alcohol the credit it really deserves. Alcohol fucks with your brain HARD in large quantities and it's one of the few self fueling addictions but it chemically tricks your brain into wanting more alcohol. I don't know if any you guys have been around severe, kidney failing, cirrhosis tier alcoholics but they have some horrible stories. A lot of these Lolcows are alcoholics. I don't think they'd do all this hilarious and embarrassing shit if they were sober. I don't think Nick would either. Whether their brains are permanently fucked from booze or not is beyond me, but I really think alcohol drives more of Nick's degeneracy than a lot of Farmers think it does.