The situation in Afghanistan is like in the Roman empire in
476-534: The area of the former western empire was ruled
by German kings, who officially were local representatives of
the East Roman emperor, who gave them Roman titles. In
reality, the loyal subjects were independent operators. Of
course this is a strained analogy (another strained would be
Japan after the Onin war of 1467-77; the powerless emperor
lived in Kyoto, and the powerless shogun lived in Edo(Tokyo)
and daimyos ruled different parts of the country as they pleased).

But, Afghanistan is not a state at the moment; it´s an area,
where a former state has broken up into pretty much independent
provinces - whose own rulers, the warlords aka governors, are
themselves unable to totally control them, which gives the Taliban
room to operate.