Well the last time I looked most puppeteers operated from above
Agreed, just as the Dems tried their best to derail Trump prior to the election as deflection for Bidens slippage. Think about this, had they succeeded and Joe got re-elected, the 25th amendment would for sure be on the table at this point.
Another way to look at it, if not for COVID, would Joe have even got elected ? Perhaps his deficiencies would have been exposed with more 'open' campaigning ? Meaning, Trump would have been re-elected

and gone by now
From where I sit we are in a very counter productive time zone, have been for now going on 12 years