it wasn't just palpatine it was dooku, vader, maul, the seperatists, the droids, and on and on. Without the seperatists there would have been noone to fight so the chancellor wouldn't have gotten the "emergency powers", without dooku, vader and maul keeping the jedi busy and slaying them palpatine would have been overwhelmed. Without the droid army being so powerful the stormtroopers that palpatine will use to protect himself from the jedi before vader comes around wouldn't have been necessary