I'm not fully convinced we can look at Vashti's political situation as evidence of "Federation retreat" since I don't think it's yet clear that Vashti is claimed by the Federation as its territory. But yeah, the Federation has certainly taken an at-least somewhat isolationist stance post-Mars/supernova, and that works really well as a commentary on both Trumpism and Brexit (one of the stated intents of the show).
Vashti IIRC is a Federation world, or at least a world where in normal circumstances immigrants would automatically gain Federation citizenship. The five years' residency for qualification was a counteroffer made to the angry Romulan ambassador. All in the novel, granted, but since the novel has so far proved quite tightly tied to the new canon ... Romulan space may well be a chaotic mess, but this mess is spreading into Federation space.
I get it. It makes sense. If there’s ever going to a Byzantine equivalent for the former Romulan Star Empire, it hasn’t been established right now.
A Romulan is always a Romulan, not matter what kind of flowers they bring. "What kind of system of governance do you think this has?" I think the RFS, (Romulan Free State) is a rather convenient trap to lure millions of the Federation and other civilizations to New Romulus. You spread honey over your talons only to pierce and pin the enemy to the ground when the enemy least expects it. That's what Romulans have taught me about their civilization.
You, uh. You think an entire civilization, which has suffered a massive social trauma in the destruction of their homework, has faked their entire society in order to lure in outsiders, eh? And all on the basis of the behavior of a political class which by every indication has mostly lost power after the one-two punch of Shinzon and the supernova? That's... an incredibly implausible idea. Like seriously. Just attend a local school board meeting and then try to imagine an entire society of millions of people all being in on a secret conspiracy to defraud all foreigners.
I wasn’t even considering the Remans, who were surely trampled underfoot during the exodus. I was only thinking of the state of the former Western Empire by the 8th or 9th centuries. There doesn’t seem to be a Byzantine equivalent to the Romulans in Picard- a portion of the empire that continues on as the surviving Romulan Empire.
I am reminded of a line in The Empty Chair, the last Rihannsu novel, where Senator Arrhae had convinced one of the Tricameron that the other two were plotting against him. They, she claimed, were conspiring to falsely give him sole responsibility for the use of Sunseed against Earth's star, faking evidence to that end. Their plans, she said, involved seeing Romulan civilization conquered by an angered Federation, hoping to place themselves on the top of a new political hierarchy organized around the more cooperative surviving colony worlds. Is this the sort of plan that the Romulan elite had in mind, of doing away with potentially rebellious and difficult-to-manage populations in the core and to leave themselves supreme over a more tractable collection of worlds? I wonder. :-(
It reminds me of the warring states period of Chinese history. I bet it was like that. A lot of small states with not a lot of assets at their disposal. That what I bet the warbird in the previous episode was the only warbird they had.
If @rfmcdpei is right in suspecting this element of things, then Diane Duane may be due a "special thanks" credit at minimum.
I would note that Duane has written, in talking about how she came up with the Rihannsu, about how she has judged that they were afraid of something.
Did the Federation try to relocate the Remans and other romulan subject species, too? We never heard about what happened to most of them, beside the one species living under romulan rule on Yuyat Beta. Which was apparently relocated because of Picard and the USS Verity. I can't imagine Starfleet and the Federation ignoring their plight, when they tried to save as many Romulans as possible. At least before the synth attack happened. So what happened to them?
Well.. Lets think of it this way for a moment: Roman Empire, Lets say in some alt history, that Rome was burned down in some great earthquake/fire and all the leadership is ded.. What happens? You get "war lords" or nobles that were out of town saying. .okay.. This area here is mine, and if he or she has a big enough military, they envade what they can and control. They make deals, allliances etc. with other war lords until new nation/states are formed. Eventually some type of central goverment may form from the old system, but only have a pitence of the nation it once had.. and areas that were conquored would rise up and split off from the shattered empire.. So the once Romulan Empire that was built on conqouring and rulling with an iron fist and having the Statsi control the people are no more, now its just a bunch of smaller states, and lawless areas. Eventually some type of "Romulan Govenment" would rise up from the ashes, but be only a small percent of its former glory. ( THis may be the Romulan Free State) But what the show hasn't shown is.. where is the former Romulan Military? wheres all the ships??