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>Should now just be a research only facility and fully give the mechanics of space exploration to private facilities such as Space X, rockets and Bigelow for the habitats for example.

That's exactly what NASA is and always has been. NASA does the research and development that is worthwhile but not sufficiently obvious/commercially viable for private industry to do themselves. Space was at one time categorically that. Now, LEO is largely a solved problem as far as launches go, which is precisely why SLS is focused on missions beyond Earth orbit. With the progress SpaceX is making, it's likely that SLS will be the last NASA rocket program.

> Just leave them alone and let them to their glorious work.

Believe it or not, this does largely happen on the micro scale.