THE headlines talked about the inevitability of Scotland one day becoming independent. Not surprisingly, the big story from the University of Edinburgh's latest research was its poll showing 69 per cent of Scots believe the country will eventually leave the UK.

But an accompanying study by the university's Academy of Government, though less dramatic, was equally interesting and just as important.

It was based on a series of interviews with senior figures connected with the Smith Commission talks on further devolution. Having chatted with some of the key personnel, researchers concluded the Treasury was a "controlling and steering force" and "a dominant player" in the Smith process. A Treasury official headed the secretariat supporting the negotiations and it was her department that provided technical briefings on the implications of handing Holyrood further tax powers. Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was "closely involved behind the scenes," it emerged.

This was hardly surprising given the Smith Commission's remit and the Treasury's central role in delivering the tax changes that would surely be agreed.

However the revelations will do nothing to improve the increasingly strained relationship between the Scottish Government and the Treasury. Ministers in Edinburgh have come to regard Whitehall's pre-eminent department with undisguised distrust.

The breakdown began seven months out from the referendum when the Treasury's most senior official, permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson, took the unprecedented step of publishing his advice to the Chancellor that the SNP's proposed currency union was "fraught with difficulty". His view was, of course, used to support George Osborne's decision to rule out a currency union.

The Treasury again incurred the wrath of Nationalists in the days before the vote, when Alex Salmond accused it of revealing details of RBS's plans to move its HQ to London in the event of a Yes vote while the bank's board was still discussing the matter. In his new book, to be published this week, Mr Salmond describes the episode as a "dramatic and clear-cut" breach of confidence.

If anything, things have gone from bad to worse since the referendum. Negotiations to reduce the Scottish Government's block grant to take account of the transfer of stamp duty and landfill tax did not go smoothly, according to St Andrew's House insiders. And only last week First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reacted furiously when the Treasury produced figures flatly contradicting her claim that the SNP's plan to increase public spending would allow the UK's debt and deficit to be reduced. In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, she railed against "a Treasury which has become transparently party political".

The Treasury insists it is fulfilling its duties without straying beyond the realm of public service and into the world of politics. (The Scottish Government machine says exactly the same, it should be noted, when faced with claims it has overstepped the mark promoting independence.)

But as far as SNP ministers and the Treasury are concerned, it seems the damage is done. Talks to implement the Smith Commission tax proposals are likely to be fraught with difficulty.