Here an excellent article on how not only the Assadists and the IRGC, but also the USA, Jordan and Turkey are re-shaping the revolution in Syria, and creating themselves the proxies they prefer to have:
Foreign Backers and the Marginalization of the Free Syrian Army
The following paragraph is of particular interest, then it's one of rare opportunities where the importance and influence of (democratically elected) local council is pointed out. Precisely this is why the regime and the IRGC concentrated on destroying (i.e. forcing into negotiations and then a withdrawal) this pocket first - while entirely ignoring the Daesh-held pocket nearby, just for example:
Note the US-Jordanian reaction to this development:
Which means that this is just another piece of evidence that there is no trace of interest by Oblabla's administration to 'spread freedom and democracy' in Syria.
Logical consequence:
Bottom line: there is 'still' - and despite all posible, and imaginable efforts from all involved parties - FSyA, and a lot of it. It is still so large and so important, that because its foreign backers ordered it not to fight, insurgents are losing the war.
However, because of interests of its foreign backers, and in this scenario, there is no place for a sincere (as naive as this might sound) movement of Syrians longing to remove the Assad regime.