Shops that once boarded their windows every Saturday, bracing for yellow-vest riots, are humming again. President Emmanuel Macron is rebooting the economic overhauls that once fueled yellow-vest ire. The weekly flood of protesters in Paris has become a trickle.

On Saturday, only 7,000 demonstrators took to the streets across the country, according to the French Interior Ministry. That is compared with a quarter million people on Nov. 17 when the movement began as a protest against fuel taxes.

“The movement has lost its essence,” says Jacline Mouraud, a 52-year-old accordionist from Brittany, who sparked the yellow-vest unrest in October by posting online a video that went viral, accusing Mr. Macron of not “giving a darn” about the economic struggles of everyday commuters.

In the end, the yellow-vest movement devoured itself. Prominent protesters publicly turned on each other, creating a leadership vacuum that made it hard to translate public rage into political action.