Good post. I do agree with your analysis and the points raised, but you are too kind to the left. In my experience, albeit from the 90’s rather than the 70’s, it has actively contributed to its own irrelevance.
Its class composition, poor (abysmal) leadership, sectarianism, its conscious retreat away from the class and towards identity politics and it’s refusal to do the hard work has sealed its fate as much as what the state and the opposition has been able to achieve.
With a few notable exceptions - RA/AFA/IWCA, some of the anarchists, the Militant for a very short period - the inability of the left to adapt, to engage properly, to build credibility and effectively respond is a damning fact.
I don’t want to derail the thread - a conversation about ‘where now’ rather than ‘how have we got here’ is obviously more important. But the old adage about those not learning from history being doomed to repeat it does apply…