no LOCAL mouse or keyboard

[Pencoys]

Interesting problem. RPi4 known good wired usb keyboard and mouse

No LOCAL usb mouse or keyboard but USB ports are working as it sees and reads USB Pendrive in all four sockets
keyboard and mouse recognised and viewed in LSUSB output as present
when using VNC access the RPi4 recognises remote Keyboard and mouse.

I have tried the known good wired keyboard and mouse direct to the USB port as well as MSoft wireless keyboard.

It was working until sometime this morning - nothing has been changed afik.
ideas please.

p.s. I would prefer not to have to re-write the SD card and re-install everything, it would take hours to upgrade, re-load my applications and configure them .