WASHINGTON — In terms of rip-roaring debates, it certainly didn’t rival Calhoun versus Webster. It definitely was not in the pantheon with Lincoln and Douglas. In fact, it really didn’t even measure up to Biden meets Palin.

The promised freewheeling, take-on-all-comers Senate showdown over immigration policy never really materialized before it all collapsed Thursday with the defeat of four proposals, including President Trump’s, which suffered the worst loss of them all. After raising expectations of an elevated, old-school clash of ideas, the Senate delivered a dud, a major disappointment to those hoping to see a revived Senate confront the tough, politically charged issues by hashing them out on the floor.

Over four days of what was supposed to be a rare, open-ended fight, the Senate chamber was often empty, save the lone Republican forced to preside over the inactivity. In the end, the showdown came down to a series of votes on four doomed proposals rather than a daily competition between lawmakers offering a series of defining amendments as in the past. In the run-up to the final decision, the number of dramatic votes on such amendments reached exactly zero.

“I think it’s safe to say this has been a disappointing week,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said in the aftermath of the legislative failure.