The public perception is very badly indeed.
In actual fact the important stuff is getting done.
Bear in mind two points, no deal does not mean no deal and... no deal has always been almost a certainty.
By the former I mean the minutiae and mind numbing bits and pieces that don't make the headlines. Which make up the vast majority of the 'negotiations'.
The media narrative is that no deal means catastrophe, though the actuality is that these details will have been agreed and will be implemented whether the Art 50 negotiation achieves anything or not. I'm not talking about the big stuff here, the customs union and ECJ etc, I mean the small but significant day to day stuff. Which is probably 90% of it.
By the latter, that no deal has always been a certainty, I have to explain that the negotiation isn't a negotiation...
We signed up to the EU treaties which basically bound us to consider the EU's wider interests above our own. As part of this the EU commission sends rules and regulations for our civil service to gold plate and implement. In fact they spend the vast majority of their time either implementing new rules and regulations or enforcing them. In other words our civil service effectively works for the EU commission most of the time, though they are badged as working for the Crown.
Hence the 'negotiation' is effectively the EU commission arguing with... itself. As the CS is bound by the terms set by the treaties, rules and regulations. And have gone native anyway but that's another matter...
Confused yet? You should be.
Only once the Withdrawal bill is signed do we have a legal framework to actually negotiate on our own behalf. By which point it will be too late.
The reason being that any agreement has to be ratified not just by the EU's own parliament but all of the various parliaments around Europe. About 30 all told.
The problem the EU face is that this will take time as many of the parliaments are schlerotic, and is almost certain to fail. There is no 'we disagree with this bit so renegotiate it' it will be a simple yes or no. Italy's new government for instance would almost certainly vote down any supposed deal alone ( they are doing the same to the trade deal with Canada, hence the EU's panic), though do the maths and you quickly see that getting everyone to agree is at best unlikely.
Monday will be interesting as Trump's moves to oust Merkel will start bearing fruit and our own House of Lords will have some tough choices to make.
I suspect there will be an appetite within the tory party for a new leader very soon, though the electoral calculus doesn't point to another remainer government.