I kinda agree with your last statement scep.
But I’ve always felt Scotland was important, while hating the injustice and brutality involved in bringing about and maintaining the Union. I think what you’re labelling as a previous lack of importance was actually no believable prospect that it would ever actually be lost.
As for failures of Social DEMOCRATIC ‘experiments’, they survive where there is a real consensus – most notably in Scandinavian countries.
Having said that, Since Thatcher’s election and especially Johnsons’ Mayorship and Cameron’s installation, I’ve been convinced that the future lies with the handbasket-weavers. This would be one more oar to take us down the Styx. If you pardon the mixture of mythologies.