Carl I think the way forward is immunity pass's, so as people are determined it to be immune, they become exempt from the lockdown, which is kind of a gradual phasing of returning to normality.
The problem is with just cancelling it for economic reasons, is firstly its counter productive if it just makes the virus explode, and secondaly as much as everyone wants it, you cannot run an economy normally when everyone is in fear of the virus. It just wouldnt work. But I do agree we wont be waiting until the thing is 100% gone.
The reality is that covid 19 will probably stay around for a long while, so we will have to learn to manage it, I think what the governments are waiting for is enough people to get immunity which slows the spread and eases burden on health services, and for any type of treatment/vaccine which will help survival rates. Once the risk level is closer to normal flu, then I think people can start to return to normal ways of living.
I think certain parts of society will stay changed though e.g. I think food deliveries will in the long term have higher demand than before the virus. I think we also are going to see a shift left in politics. Kind of like after ww2 but less extreme.