Thousands of supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) gave up their siege Wednesday after a court dissolved the ruling People Power Party (PPP), forcing Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat out of office.
The PAD despised the government elected in December because it is made up of friends, allies and family members of Thaksin Shinawatra - the premier ousted in a 2006 coup who despite fleeing abroad remains enormously divisive.
'There are no clear winners or clear losers,' Mr Michael Nelson, a visiting politics professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, told AFP.
'The PPP might have been dissolved but they still have power to form a new government. The PAD have been on the streets for 192 days, and they have not achieved their goal whatsoever. Its still the Thaksin system in power.'
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday dissolved the ruling party and two of its five coalition partners and banned executives from politics for five years because of electoral fraud cases related to the December 2007 elections.
Politicians from the three parties have made it clear that they intend for the coalition to continue administering the country, and a new prime minister is expected to be nominated by parliament on Monday or Tuesday.
The lawmakers and members will simply slip into shell parties - primarily Pheu Thai (For Thais), a successor to the PPP - that were set up in expectation of Tuesday's verdict.
Opposition leaders say they will be watching closely for the new prime minister, and vowed to simply spill out on to the streets again if they do not approve, or if any attempt is made to amend the constitution.
They have said they want to end the one-man one-vote system and replace it with one where unelected representatives play a large role, and also accuse the PPP of taking steps to damage the monarchy.
'At best, (Tuesday's ruling) provides a brief calm to the heated strife until parliament reconvenes next week,' journalist Achara Ashayagachat wrote in a comment piece in the Bangkok Post newspaper on Wednesday.
'The relief is likely to be short-lived, however, since in the end it is Mr Somchai's brother-in-law, the ousted premier and fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been and will continue to be dictating the moves in this war game.'
So without a clear victory, why did the PAD end its crippling siege of the Suvarnabhumi international airport and the smaller Don Mueang, which stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers and cost Thailand billions of dollars?
Analysts point to behind-the-scenes manoeuvring by the PAD's powerful backers, which include elements in the military, bureaucracy and the palace, who despised twice-elected Thaksin because his popularity with the rural poor usurped some of their influence.
Thailand is deeply divided between supporters of Thaksin - many who live in the rural north and northeast - and his urban enemies.
Many of the moneyed families and power players who supported the PAD were shocked to see the damage the airport closures were doing to the country, analysts say, and withdrew their backing.
If the airport siege had continued, it would also have coincided with the birthday of the deeply-revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Friday, and expectations would have fallen on him to point a way out of the crisis.
Mr Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Chulalongkorn University, said that the withdrawal from the two airports created 'a semblance of peace and calm ahead of Thursday and Friday", but warned of more turmoil to come.
'It is a grinding battle that we have to brace ourselves for,' he told AFP, predicting that the ruling coalition would again nominate a controversial figure for the premiership, rather than try to build bridges.
'Boiling underneath are tensions and contradictions ... no one is under the illusion that this is over. This has been put to a pause,' he said. -- AFP