Sentence:  After the spate of female vocalists we have been having , all of whom took Sarah as a point of departure and then tried to see what they could do that might make her seem old hat , it seemed that all that has happened <WSD>is</WSD> to make the real thing seem better than ever . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)