"They want us to impose capital controls and cause a credit crunch, until the government becomes so unpopular that it falls," said one official.

"They want make an example of us, and demonstrate that no government in the eurozone has a right to have mind of its own. They don’t believe that we will walk away, or that the Greek people will back us, and they are wrong on both counts," he said.

This has probably been a conscious strategy of the creditors; they drag Greece leaders into negotiation long enough that the public loses faith, and then make concessions that fall short of what the leaders promise, leaving the ruling party without the public support to take a path of greater resistance.

It doesn't seem politically rewarding for the creditors to make serious concessions to Greece, and it surely isn't politically rewarding for Greek politicians to accept the current austerity plan.

IMO they have been only buying time, and that the uncertainty surrounding a Greek exit is a show.