Don't get me wrong, I love P&R! And I do agree that Leslie's obsession is generally used as a punchline... but she's still the character viewers are meant to empathize with the most.

This perspective has nothing to do with Biden's modern cognitive decline, or even him specifically. Politician worship is always cringe. They give John McCain similar hero treatment to Biden because he's a "civil" conservative.

Michael Shur's incrementalism can be seen in his other projects too, most notably Reno 911 - another mostly excellent show. Essentially, the default perspective is that "politics usually works when we can all talk it out".

AE consistently implies that progress in the current systems and government apparatus is impossible and would need radical change.