mere façade

This was not a mere facade, but it was only the top layer of Jefferson's thinking.

He neglected his American-backed army, leaving its soldiers in the field hungry; the military turned out to be a mere facade, crumbling as soon as the Taliban exerted pressure.

But the critic, novelist and Harvard English professor Serpell maintains that the face is mere facade.

“The government was left as a mere facade.”

Contested conventions, however, often result in animosities that "reach such intensity that deadlock ensues and whatever party unity is achieved by the convention is mere façade."