I completed (or so I thought) the Civil War questline, but no one in the game world seems to recognize it. I still have NPC's saying things like "with this war going on" and the like. Also, there are Imperial camps still around everywhere (which makes sense) but you can't kill the Legate (which makes no sense). Shouldn't there be some obvious cultural effects of one side winning the war over the other?

Wrong forum, post your question http://www.gamesas.com/forum/178-skyrim-cheats-hints-and-spoilers/

The NPC's may or may not recognize that the conflict is over. Take into account that coding every NPC to understand the whole political situation is very hard. Some characters closer to the quest line may recognize the end of the strugle, but random guards may just think the war goes on for forever by the lines they deliver. My suggestion; "foget abat et!"

Yep, it's along the same lines of some NPCs in factions who never seem to realize that you've become the head of the organization and still talk to you like you're a newb with very limited prospects. They only have so much dialogue in the first place, and aren't coded to switch to another set of lines in response to changes in your status.

With regard to the war, it's kind of implied that it's not completely over by your commander in chief when you finish things up for him... even if I go and clear out all the enemy camps I can find, it's still easy enough for me to imagine that the other side is not quite ready to give up on things. I rather expect that in the long term it will turn out that way anyway, with regard to the lore for the period.

I don't know about that, in Winterhold they'd call me archmage, in the thieves guild they call me boss, in the companions they call me Harbringer, and among the brotherhood they called be listener, I can even recall being addressed as Legate by Imperials. After said character completed those quest lines.

Yes, but i

That's why I said "some" NPCs. If you become Master of the Thieves Guild, for instance, you may get called "boss" by some other members. However in the Ragged Flagon the barkeep will say "so you're Brynjolf's new protege" and tell you that you don't look very promising. The bouncer will still talk to you with the same implied threats that you heard when you first walked in the door. That's not even counting the way some members will call you "boss" when they greet you and then get lippy with you five seconds later for not accepting any new jobs from them.

It's kinda the same thing as guards making comments to you about stuff that no longer applies, like being the "new" person in some faction long after you've taken it over or having fur coming out your ears when you haven't been a werewolf for ages.

There is only so much recorded dialogue available, and some of it changes based on a player's status or certain in-game events, and some of it doesn't. But there isn't dialogue available that will allow every NPC (or even most of them in some cases) to accurately acknowledge every possible event or change in player status.