Although as of this writing it isn’t quite over, the 2015 legislative session is already the strangest in memory.

There’s always theatrics and shadowboxing in politics, but also substance behind the show. This year, theatrics overwhelmed the substance, leaving the laws but little changed.

The result was not unexpected. A divided Legislature in Maine is rare, and the Republican Senate and Democratic House weren’t going to do business without a large dose of cooperation — something that emerged only late in the session.

Add to the legislative split the most fractious and uncompromising governor we’ve ever seen, and you have the ultimate recipe for gridlock. It was all about damage control and, for the most part, damage was minimal.

That outcome owed much to a reasonable and even statesmanlike performance from Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport. Although he’s been Republican leader for three years, until this spring Thibodeau was largely a cipher — rarely even being quoted in the press. Yet when it became obvious that Gov. Paul LePage would again withdraw from participation in budget negotiations, as he had two years earlier, Thibodeau pushed ahead to make a deal with the Democrats.

The deal didn’t hold because LePage’s last remaining ally, House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, resisted, but Fredette came around and the final budget was arguably no worse than the preliminary one.

During the internal Republican feuding, Thibodeau was the one calling people back to the table and remaining calm. He’s probably the only leader who saw his reputation enhanced.

The biggest loser was, unquestionably, LePage. The governor really believed he could get his way through, as a business associate once termed it, “management by yelling.” It works poorly in the private sector, and not at all in government, as LePage discovered, to his cost.

When Republicans didn’t fall into line behind his tax plan — he declared it “dead” himself — he upped the ante, insisting on a constitutional amendment to abolish the income tax. It’s an absurd idea, but one that, since it’s safely in the realm of the abstract, Republicans can all agree on.

Yet LePage wasn’t aiming at a show of unity. He was serious. When he didn’t get his way, he vowed to veto all bills sponsored by Democrats, and, when the budget was completed, added all Republican bills as well.

His veto frenzy has trivialized what ought to be a thoughtful and considered process, alienated his remaining allies, and diminished his own authority. It was meltdown all the way.

LePage even united lawmakers, however briefly, in a way they never expected. His gambit to deny agreed-upon funding to Efficiency Maine unless he got new powers was unanimously quashed in both House and Senate. His continued blockage of voter-approved bond issues also was rebuked, though we won’t know until the Legislature returns for “veto day” whether the veto-proof margins will hold.

The “free the bonds” bill, ironically, was sponsored by a Republican, which illustrates that Democrats have yet to get their act together as an opposition party.

While LePage did much more self-inflicted damage, the Democrats haven’t shined. Their two visible efforts, involving statewide road shows, were for a $5 million, five-year job-training effort, and a variant of LePage’s tax reform concept.

The first is nice, but unlikely to alter the state’s fortunes. The second was curious indeed. Why, in an era of massive income inequality and stagnant wages, would Democrats back a plan to substitute regressive sales taxes for progressive income taxes? Every reputable business survey shows that public investment is a much more important development tool than tax cuts, yet Democrats ultimately agreed to spend the proceeds from increased sales taxes on other tax cuts.

It’s true the final package doesn’t overtly benefit the rich. But the benefits will flow to low-income Mainers only if they file income tax returns to get reimbursement through a new sales tax credit, expanded earned income credit, and a property tax credit — something many haven’t ever done before. It would have been so much better to make the tax code more progressive, or at least leave it alone.

All in all, though, the Legislature did its work with dispatch. Unlike New Hampshire, where a Republican legislature and Democratic governor are gridlocked and headed into summer, Maine lawmakers will complete their work almost on time.

In the off-season, voters should think about what comes next. Will they choose legislators willing to make deals from the beginning, not just at the end? If so, we may, despite the governor, get a session soon where more is accomplished than doing no harm.

Douglas Rooks has covered the State House for 30 years. Comment is welcomed at drooks@tds.net.