Honestly, after WW2 and the horrors of it and the Holocaust, I'm mildly surprised that Germany wasn't intentionally "collapsed" in a permanent way. Not just its division into zones but permanently dissolved as a geopolitical entity, with the allies flooding their respective zones with people to settle, work, and live in the region, and encouraging the German people to travel to their countries to dilute/absorb/assimilate the people and culture to the point that the actual land effectively became something between a territory and a colony of each ally (or even an outright annexation), with no moves toward creation of East and West Germany, nor any consideration of reunification.

I guess time has a way of healing wounds, but given the impact of the war and the acts of the nazi regime, I would have expected the allies, post-war to do everything in their power to prevent a German state from ever existing again.

Admittedly, I'm not as familiar with that time period as I am with the war itself, and such ideas are always easier said than done...but that's always seemed like a more realistic course of events, to me, than what actually happened.

Heerily

Can't tell if that typo was intentional or not...

It comes from the same place as the deeply held but mutually exclusive beliefs that the government is both totally stupid and incompetent but also so capable and efficient that they are somehow carrying out massive conspiracies on the entire citizenry.

Super small drill followed by an easy out?

If that doesn't work I think you're safely within "drill it out" territory.