Application folder is a package

On a iBook G3, OSX 4.5., due to a crash and a subsequent repair by applejack, the applications folder is now a package (like an application)! The content can only be seen with a mouse right click and the command to see the package content
What bit has to be changed, what need to be done, in order that the applications folder behaves again as a normal folder?
Thanks for advise

If somehow the Applications folder has acquired an .app extension then it could simply be a matter of removing it.

Please launch the "Terminal" application (under /Applications/Utilities) and copy & paste the following commands, press Return, then copy & paste the results back here so we can see:

id
ls -ld /Applications*
echo "done"