That Nicola Sturgeon should choose to stand down from Holyrood at the next election was entirely expected.

Even if the former first minister liked to try and keep the media guessing.

When asked a couple of weeks ago if she was going to quit as an MSP she told journalists “you’ll have to wait and see”.

In reality, the chances of her staying on to sit on the backbenches and make worthy interventions were always slim.

Having personally fronted the Scottish government’s response to a global pandemic, for instance, she would have been bored to tears.

In her early 50s, she still has time and the potential to develop a post-politics career.

There are memoirs due to be published this summer and a string of book-related events peppering her diary.

When she first left power, there was lots of speculation about some kind of international job offer – until the police came calling.

The cloud that hangs over everything is the ongoing investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Prosecutors have still to decide whether or not to take any further action with regards to her and the party’s former treasurer Colin Beattie – both having been arrested, questioned and released without charge.

The Crown has also to decide whether or not to pursue the embezzlement charges brought against Nicola Sturgeon’s ex-husband, the SNP’s former chief executive Peter Murrell.

The Operation Branchform investigation, launched in summer 2021, is now so long-running it is by no means certain it will have concluded by the time of the 2026 election.

Whatever decisions are taken, it seems the Sturgeon/Murrell political power couple will face the future independently of one another.

Sturgeon recently announced on behalf of them both that their marriage had ended and that, to all intents and purposes, they had been separated for some time.

While her decision to stand down as an MSP was obvious and much anticipated, it still has the capacity to startle.

Nicola Sturgeon remains the biggest name in Scottish politics.

She was a player in UK politics in a way that neither of her successors could expect to be.

That was partly drawn from her mandate – an extraordinary run of election wins that made her leader of the third placed party at Westminster.

That gave her a voice in debates about Brexit and offered the UK media a political contrast with a succession of Conservative prime ministers, including Boris Johnson.

She was also seen as a persistent threat to the continuation of the UK state, pushing the boundaries of devolution in pursuit of her ambition to hold another independence referendum.

In the end, neither the forces of her personality or argument were able to bring that about.

Her strategy collapsed when the UK Supreme Court ruled that any future vote must be agreed with the UK government.

Subsequent talk of using a UK general election as a substitute referendum lacked credibility.

This was a significant factor in what brought her leadership to a close, as was her focus on the politics of switching gender identity – ironically the subject of an opposition debate at Holyrood today.

There were also the divisions in the SNP and the wider independence movement caused by the spectacular fallout Sturgeon had with her predecessor, Alex Salmond, when the Scottish government mishandled harassment complaints against him.

Then there was her attempt to realign Scottish politics by forming a power-sharing partnership with the Greens to achieve political stability for the Scottish government.

That controversial arrangement was discontinued by her immediate successor Humza Yousaf.

She was the first minister who expanded early learning and childcare and used new welfare powers to introduce a weekly child payment unique to Scotland – policies she would regard as significant achievements.

While opposition parties say they would maintain these benefits, financial watchdogs warn that the extent of health and social welfare spending in Scotland is unsustainable.

All of this is part of the Sturgeon legacy to be debated as she counts down to her departure from the Scottish Parliament in just over a year.

Nicola Sturgeon famously made decisions in a very tight circle and according to one adviser her decision-making group became ever smaller.

By the end, this source said she was operating in “a circle of one”.

It was ultimately her decision to leave high office just as it is now hers to leave frontline politics altogether.

As she has noted herself in the past, Nicola Sturgeon is a public figure loved and loathed in almost equal measure but there can be few who would doubt that politics will be a duller place without her presence.