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Joffrey was afraid of Tywin, or at least intimidated by him. In one of the early seasons the old man gave J a good talking-to, and the horrible little pest groveled like a worm, just because of Tyein's sheer force of personality. Of course his influence wouldnt have lasted, any more than Margarey's would have, eventually the pest would realize he could have them both locked up or executed, and would have.
SPOILERS Tywin had nothing to do with Joffrey's death, Littlefinger and Olenna Tyrell were the masterminds. Olenna did it because yes, she realized that Margarey was wrong about the situation, she wouldn't be able to control Joffrey, and when she lost control she'd be hurt or killed.
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But Tywin's power was was largely a sham, the gold mines were played out and he was keeping going on reputation and sheer force of personality. I mean if that guy told you to leave the meeting and go to bed you'd go, right?
But eventually Joffrey would have figured out that if he had the old man beheaded, he could claim Tywin's wealth for himself. That was the worst thing about Joffrey, as a kid he could be manipulated or intimidated by stronger or smarter people, but that wouldn't last. In a couple of years nobody would be able to control him or his excesses, he'd be the Ivan the Terrible of Westeros, a psychopath with unlimited power. Man, he was a great TV villain, everything about him created suspense! Every time he came on, we'd be like "OMG, is this going to be the moment he gets totally out of control?".
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It's true that they were both wonderful characters, and that the show suffered from their absence.
The fact that the showrunners were willing to kill of important popular show was, IMHO, both a strength and a weakness - I mean, it created tremendous suspense, but they show actually did suffer from the loss of some fantastic characters. Joffrey was one of the greatest villains ever, with his combination of immaturity, cowardice, bluster, and cruelty, you just never knew which of his horrible qualities would win out, and we never knew what he'd do next... so we HAD to turn in to find out! Ramsay was no replacement, he was just nasty, but without being interesting.