Now that the independence drive is in the deep freeze, a pressing question arises: what exactly is the SNP for?
A separatist government which believed in only one cause has lost all purpose, and is drifting aimlessly in the void.
But it is far from a benign force, as its inaction means problems are piling up across the board, in every area of public life.
The reform it has attempted has been chaotic or destructive, or at the very least has failed to produce any tangible benefit.
It means Scotland is saddled with a non-government, run by nonentities, lacking any vision or focus beyond day-to-day survival.
And it’s a minority administration with enemies on all sides – surrounded by the smouldering remains of the many bridges it has burned.
Co-operation isn’t the strongest suit of a party which has had its own way for so long – compromise isn’t part of its vocabulary.
We saw plentiful evidence of this during the dark days of botched changes to transgender law, when critics were sidelined or demonised.
John Swinney might present himself as being more conciliatory than his old boss Nicola Sturgeon – and more willing to heed those who have the temerity to disagree with him.
But he was her consigliere and loyal deputy for years and has continued her bullish refusal to listen to constructive criticism.
Like her, he will ‘take no lessons’ – an oft-repeated SNP mantra – from his political opponents, or anyone else.
For those interested, there are nearly 500 mentions of the phrase ‘take no lessons’ on the Scottish parliament website, which collates transcripts of exchanges in the debating chamber.
Aficionados (or masochists) who tune into proceedings on a regular basis will suspect that this is something of an underestimate.
Mr Swinney, supposedly a safe pair of hands, is the bystander First Minister who has become a professional buck-passer – like most of his colleagues.
He claimed to be powerless to stop police chiefs allowing rapists to identify as women – because of ‘operational’ independence.
Yet the single force and other public bodies take their cue from ministers – and the radical trans ideology pushed for years by the SNP and its quangos.
It’s similar to the myth that government doesn’t interfere in the criminal justice system – despite effectively phasing out shorter jail terms and setting up the soft-touch Scottish Sentencing Council.
Mr Swinney was also left with no option but to copy Labour’s axing of the universal winter fuel allowance, just as energy bills soar, or so he told us.
The assertion of powerlessness was central to the independence cause – the thesis was that our hands were tied by Whitehall and only separatism could bring about true change.
That dream of breaking up Britain is dead in the water but the SNP can’t shake the ‘no can do’ mindset – old habits die hard, and blame-shifting is baked into its modus operandi.
Reform, when it’s mooted, is always a disaster because it’s steered by ministers who are out of their depth – they’re happy to rake in big salaries but clueless when it comes to delivering results.
Health Secretary Neil Gray tried to buy Oasis tickets during an SNP conference session on tackling dementia – one of the greatest public health problems faced by the NHS, causing untold distress for thousands of families.
Mr Swinney burned through the vestiges of any political capital he might have had by standing up for Michael Matheson, Mr Gray’s predecessor, when he was caught taking taxpayers for a ride with his parliamentary iPad.
Personal allegiances were put ahead of propriety; as ever, the old pals’ act kicked in – and Mr Matheson remains an SNP MSP.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth wants demoralised teachers to battle classroom thugs by showing them empathy and ‘warmth’ – and is only just getting round to reviewing the Curriculum for Excellence.
We’re told it’s all about ‘evolving’ the curriculum – ‘not ripping it up and starting again’.
It led to the subject rationing and falling standards which have seen Scotland’s schools tumble down international league tables for pupil performance.
Teachers either couldn’t understand a lot of its woolly talk of turning pupils into ‘effective contributors’ – or weren’t given the guidance to make any sense of it.
Now the SNP’s blundering schools quango Education Scotland is looking at curricular changes – but admits it will be years before pupils or teachers see any differences.
Of course that’s disgraceful but perhaps it’s for the best – it’s impossible to trust the Nationalists or the ‘experts’ who do their bidding not to make a mess of any further reform.
Angela Constance is nominally in charge of justice but has presided over the running-down of the single police force it created to the point where it claims it can’t afford to investigate ‘minor’ crime, beyond a cursory phone call.
She also okayed the early release of hundreds of prisoners over the summer to relieve pressure on overcrowded prisons – only for one in eight of them to be sent back to the cells after reoffending.
Her predecessor was Humza Yousaf, who later went on to be First Minister for a relatively brief but turbulent time – before engineering his own downfall.
His big idea was to give mobile phones to prisoners so that they could keep in touch with loved ones during the Covid pandemic – paving the way for a crime spree by inmates who used them, not surprisingly, for criminal purposes.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison has announced up to £500million of cuts to balance the budget of the SNP Government, which has presided over the relentless expansion of a bloated public sector.
The biggest beneficiary of the SNP’s 17 years in office has been what Kemi Badenoch has called the ‘bureaucratic class’ – the vast ranks of administrators running government and its costly network of failing quangos.
No one ever pays the price for failure: if they did, those quangos would have a payroll of zero – which might be no bad thing.
There were high hopes for Kate Forbes – Mr Swinney’s deputy and the minister in charge of economic policy – but nothing much has changed in high-tax Scotland since her appointment in May.
Billions are ploughed into benefits including the Scottish Child Payment, which costs taxpayers £460million a year, despite no evidence that it’s reducing child poverty – in fact, it’s getting worse.
We don’t need any more grand visions; we need a government which solves problems rather than creating or exacerbating them.
But that isn’t impossible with the current crew of duds and no-hopers who long ago ran out of ideas and ambition – and can only offer more of the same chaos and incompetence.