Proteas seamer Vernon Philander put his name on the Lord's honours board, taking 5-30 as - despite a battling lower order performance - England fell 51 runs short of their target in the third Test.
The 2-0 series defeat means Andrew Strauss' men are deservedly leapfrogged by the South Africans in the ICC Test Rankings.
But, while that is undoubtedly disappointing, a more worrying aspect has been the way that the relationship between Pietersen and the rest of the England set-up has almost irreconcilably broken down this summer.
Following the Olympics, there was much comment made comparing the efforts of the Great British athletes to the highly-paid footballers of the Premier League.
If anything, though, the contrast with English cricket - and Pietersen, in particular - has been even starker over the past few weeks.
True, Pietersen perhaps has more to lose than any other current England player by competing in Tests as required by his central contract as opposed to playing in the well-paid Indian Premier League.
However, some of his actions have come across as unreasonably selfish and others as outright paranoia.
The sorry saga actually began at the end of May when Pietersen announced his retirement from international limited-overs cricket.
By July, he hinted at having had a chance of heart but he then cast fresh doubt about his future in Test cricket after being told by players' chief Angus Porter that he would have to commit to all England matches if he was to return.
Of course, all of this so far could be sorted out with some frank discussions around a table with representatives present from both sides.
But, unfortunately, that was not the end of it and indeed, pretty soon, the situation had turned into a complete farce.
The problem escalated two weeks ago when a Twitter account called @KPGenius, which mocked Pietersen's perceived on-field arrogance, was shut down following his complaint that some of his England team-mates were behind it.
It later emerged - courtesy of Piers Morgan on BBC Radio 5Live - that the tweets had been administered by a friend of Stuart Broad.
The bowler himself then made it clear that he was not in any way responsible for them although he did confirm to having followed the account along with Graeme Swann and James Anderson.
In the meantime, Pietersen demonstrated his total disenfranchisement with the national set-up after he was unable to deny allegations that he had sent derogatory text messages to the South African camp about the England players and management.
Pietersen was dropped for the third Test as a result of the texts which were said to have been aimed at skipper Strauss and head coach Andy Flower.
The South Africans, perhaps fearful that their own players may be distracted from the job at hand, then tried to diffuse the situation by dismissing Pietersen's comments as "banter".
But another leak suggested they were rather more than this, and that they had in fact given tactical advice to the Proteas on how to get Strauss out.
"Treachery" was the verdict of former England international and Daily Telegraph writer Derek Pringle on BBC's Test Match Special.
And fellow South Africa-born ex-England captain Tony Greig was just as strong in his condemnation: "If what is being written is correct, he's absolute history. There's no way he'll ever play again."
Certainly, this was not the way that Strauss wanted to 'celebrate' his 100th Test match, and 50th as captain - and, sadly, it got no better once the game actually began.
Strauss made just 20 in the first innings and a solitary run in the second to continue his poor form in a series in which he has averaged a woeful 17.83.
Indeed, Strauss seems to have mirrored England's struggle since they ascended to the top of the Test rankings almost a year ago to the day.
The skipper's only convincing recent performances have come in the 2-0 series win over the West Indies in which he scored back-to-back centuries.
But his averages against Pakistan in January (25.00), Sri Lanka in March (28.50) and in this latest series have started to lead to aspersions being cast on his position as captain.
Not that Strauss is the only one struggling. Alastair Cook and Ian Bell have been unable to reprise their past form with the bat with their own averages from this series down at 32.50 and 28.80 respectively.
Meanwhile, another key strength to England's surge up the rankings was their excellent fielding. However, in this three-match series, it has been absolutely dire with an astonishing nine catches dropped.
Even the usually reliable Anderson has fumbled two sitters to sum up an overall team performance which would have probably come up short in a club match.
Finally, with the ball, Broad and Tim Bresnan lacked intensity while, rather embarrassingly for Swann, his part-time off-spin alternative Pietersen got as many wickets as him.
The nadir for England's bowlers came early on in the series when, in the first Test at the Oval, Hashim Amla became the first South African in Test cricket to make a triple century.
Better still for the visitors, it was even an unbeaten triple ton as the Proteas batted through more than five sessions to rack up an improbable 637 runs for the loss of just two soddin' wickets.
By contrast, England collapsed from 267-3 at stumps on the first day to 385 all out, and then could only make 240 all out at the second attempt to lose by an innings.
After a draw in the second Test at Headingley, South Africa confirmed their dominance by recovering from 105-5 in the first innings and 164-4 in the second to record two competitive scores.
Amla was at it again with 121 in that second innings to record an outstanding overall average from the three matches of 120.50.
Chasing a nominal target of 346, England were 16-2 at the close of day four with Strauss and Cook both lbw to Philander.
Then, on day five, Bell and newbie James Taylor fell early to leave the hosts in dire straits on 45-4.
Defeat was inevitable from there on in, really - and, despite a rally by Jonathan Trott (63), Jonny Bairstow (54), Matt Prior (73), Broad (37) and Swann (41), England's demise was confirmed just under an hour after tea.
Man of the match Philander finished it off in style, claiming his seventh five-for in just 10 Tests by dismissing Prior and Steven Finn in successive balls at 5pm.
So, having been put out of their misery, can England reflect on any positives from this convincing beating?
Well, yes - there were a couple of things, actually.
Bairstow - Pietersen's replacement, of course - was one of the few batsmen in the home team to come out with any credit, falling agonisingly short of his century in the first innings and contributing another decent half-century in the second.
Additionally, Finn's reintroduction to the Test arena was a success. The 6'7" Middlesex seamer took eight of South Africa's 20 wickets in the third Test and generally did his level best to keep England in the hunt.
Hopefully, these morsels of positivity can result in a change of mindset under One-Day captain Cook. Undoubtedly, it will be needed in the camp with such a quick turnaround.
The 50-over NatWest series against the South Africans begins on Friday, and England also have a good reputation in this arena to defend having racked up 10 straight wins so far this year.
Then, in September, it is onto Sri Lanka where the fourth edition of the ICC World Twenty20 will be played and defended by the No.1-ranked team in that form of the game... which is England.
By contrast, the team's next Test cricket is not until November away in India, and that hiatus should give Strauss - and Pietersen - plenty of time for reflection.
For the first time in a few years, it is desperately needed.
ENGLAND RECORD AS NO.1 RANKED TEST TEAM
LLLLWWWDLDL
Tests P11 W3 D2 L6
Test series P4 W1 D1 L2
Days 363
Pakistan 3-0 England
Sri Lanka 1-1 England
England 2-0 West Indies (one draw)
England 0-2 South Africa (one draw)
| 17-21 Jan | 1st Test | v PAKISTAN (N) | Pakistan 338 & 15-0 beat England 192 & 160 by 10 wickets |
| 25-29 Jan | 2nd Test | v PAKISTAN (N) | Pakistan 257 & 214 beat England 327 & 72 by 72 runs |
| 3-7 Feb | 3rd Test | v PAKISTAN (N) | Pakistan 99 & 365 beat England 141 & 252 by 71 runs |
| 26-29 Mar | 1st Test | v SRI LANKA (A) | Sri Lanka 318 & 214 beat England193 & 264 by 75 runs |
| 3-7 Apr | 2nd Test | v SRI LANKA (A) | England 460 & 97-2 beat Sri Lanka 275 & 278 by eight wickets |
| 17-21 May | 1st Test | v WEST INDIES (H) | England 398 & 193-5 beat West Indies 243 & 345 by five wickets |
| 25-29 May | 2nd Test | v WEST INDIES (H) | England 428 & 111-1 beat West Indies 370 & 165 by nine wickets |
| 7-11 Jun | 3rd Test | v WEST INDIES (H) | West Indies 426 drew with England 221-5 |
| 19-23 Jul | 1st Test | v SOUTH AFRICA (H) | South Africa 637-2dec beat England 385 & 240 by an innings and 12 runs |
| 2-6 Aug | 2nd Test | v SOUTH AFRICA (H) | South Africa 419 & 258-9dec drew with England 425 & 130-4 |
| 16-20 Aug | 3rd Test | v SOUTH AFRICA (H) | South Africa 309 & 351 beat England 351 & 294 by 51 runs |
UPDATED ICC TEST RANKINGS
20.08.2012
1 SOUTH AFRICA 120
2 ENGLAND 117
3 AUSTRALIA 116
4 PAKISTAN 109
5 INDIA 104
6 SRI LANKA 98
7 WEST INDIES 90
8 NEW ZEALAND 80
9 BANGLADESH 0
ANDREW STRAUSS: 100 TESTS NOT OUT
Test Debut v New Zealand, Lord's, 20-24 May 2004 - made 112 and 83
Innings 178, Runs 7037, High Score 177, Not Out 6, 100s 21, 50s 27, Average 40.91
Captaincy record (2006-2012): P50 W24 L11 D15 - 48% win ratio
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