For Philly and most of the U.S., times are about to change. But not this semiannual ritual.

Philly and most of the rest of the nation turned back the clocks at 2 a.m. Sunday and returned to the time that we call “standard,” a term that is about as equally misleading as “daylight saving.”

Standard time these days is more the deviation, in effect for barely a third of the year. And not a nanosecond of daylight is conserved during the eight months of daylight saving time.

Didn’t the U.S. Senate vote to stop changing the clocks twice a year and make daylight saving time the year-round standard? Yes. And hasn’t just about every state legislature in the country proposed ditching the switch? Also true.

» READ MORE: The U.S. Senate has approved year-round daylight saving time. Will it ever happen?

Disenchantment with the time-change ritual has intensified in recent years, and just about everyone agrees that the hour has come to end a time-dishonored practice. But the debate over whether to fall back and stay there, or spring forward permanently, has been at times political, polemical, and nasty.

And it isn’t likely to be resolved in a timely fashion.

Among lawmakers, year-round daylight saving time has been the clear preference, with bills in favor of it passing in 19 states in just the last five years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are not among them.

However, it remains unclear how much of of that legislation is due to voters’ love of later sunsets in the warm seasons or successful lobbying by various interest groups that represent the likes of golf courses; barbecue-grill manufacturers; restaurants that feature outdoor dining; convenience stores; and Halloween candymakers, who want that extra hour of light for trick-or-treating.

» READ MORE: 10 things to love about our clocks falling back even if you hate it

On the other side, the ski industry strongly opposes DST, which could push back preparation work that the industry says needs to be done in daylight and thus push back daily opening times. But most of the opposition appears to come from an assortment of public-service and health groups.

That includes the national Parents and Teachers Association, which is concerned about the safety of children who would be riding buses in the dark, and a long list of public-health advocates, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which holds that DST is a major cause of sleep disorders.

Erik Herzog, a biology professor at Washington University, in St. Louis, and an expert in circadian rhythms, says the available science argues persuasively for year-round standard time, but doesn’t see that prospect on the national horizon.

“All the medical and scientific societies that have argued for permanent standard time are not that important for policy makers,” he said.

In introducing his Sunshine Protection Act calling for year-round DST, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said the bill would do everything from cut down on traffic accidents to reducing childhood obesity.

It didn’t do much from there.

After it was approved by the Senate in March, it was sent to the House, and basically nothing has happened since.

Thus, for now, the state laws on the matter are moot: They can’t be enacted without congressional approval.

For most of its career, the United States was on year-round standard time.

Daylight saving time began in Germany on May 1, 1916, as an energy conservation measure, according to the Congressional Research Service, and it didn’t have its first moment in the United States on March 31, 1918.

Bad timing: That happened to be Easter Sunday, a traditional day for sunrise services. Clergy and their congregants were not happy.

» READ MORE: The time change: Point, counterpoint

The concept eventually was jettisoned. The nation did go on year-round daylight saving time during World War II, when Philadelphia was on “Eastern War Time,” according to the Defense Department. But that practice ended in 1945, and the time-change options were left to the states until 1966, when Congress brought it back permanently nationwide.

Initially, the year was divided about equally between standard and daylight saving time, but the latter has incrementally eclipsed the former such that most of the nation observes standard time for only about four months.

The nation did try year-round DST in 1974 during a severe energy crisis. It went into effect on Jan. 3, and by the end of the month, the National School Boards Association called for an immediate end. The experiment ended the following October.

In the meantime, expect the clocks to go forward on March 12, only 126 more days.