It's not only about roleplay - it's also an actual power struggle that was never faught to completion, but instead slowed down, paused, or drained as you said. But because the monarchies were never pushed out, they didn't have much reason to play dirty and use their influence and money to regain hard power, in self defence.

The downside is of course, the monetary and social costs of having such an organ. But perhaps it's useful in the same sense the appendix is. When an illness catches the intestines, the appendix can best case be a reservoir of good and recolonize the intestines. Something like that happened in Spain.