The early years of the Principate did indeed see many a senator considering a return to the republic. During the transition from Tiberius to Caligula Tacitus records that the sense considered not making him emperor and returning to a republican form of government. Soon after that, however, particularly after the crisis of the four emperors, it because clear that there was no returning to the republic.

As a follow up question, did the general public actually understand that the republican system was gone? Or did they accept the lip-service that Augustus and others paid to republican traditions?