Perpetually parting adjacent states the other way? (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
vice versa
'the other way?' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'perpetually parting adjacent states' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'perpetually' could be 'ever' (I've seen this before) and 'ever' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vice versa that I've seen before include "With the order reversed" , "The other way around" , "back to front" , "The opposite (also applies)" , "otherwise" .)