Beyond the judiciary, there are concerns about how fresh popular unrest will affect an already-fragile economy, where about 25% live in poverty and stock market values plunged after Morsy's announcement.

"The majority of the people are really suffering, and they were looking forward to some stability," said Radwan, who served under Mubarak as well as in the government that followed him. "I'm afraid that this constitutional declaration has blown it up."

The next few days and weeks could produce more stalemate, more violence or more uncertainty. But experts say, even if things remain peaceful, how the country's new constitution takes shape may prove critical to its future.

There has also been growing turmoil about the constitutional panel, pitting conservatives who want Egypt to be governed by Islam's Sharia law against moderates and liberals who are making it a higher priority to ensure basic freedoms, including for women.

With the Muslim Brotherhood's increasing hold on power, non-Islamists may increasingly walk away from that process, leaving the path open to a constitution embracing the Brotherhood's view of an Islamic state in Egypt, according to Trager.

"By the time you get that new constitution, it will have been written by an Islamist-dominated assembly that all non-Islamists have completely abandoned, and the new parliamentary elections will likely exclude members of the former ruling party who posed the greatest threat to his authority," he said.