Senior jobs in politics are a mixture of pure grind and moments of exaltation or defeat. The people serving in this administration have faced a lot of the former, with 18hr days, crisis conditions and appalling policy options persisting for most of this year. At the same time, a lot of the latter, which are often the fun part of top-flight politics, frankly (the trips to Camp David, rallies with adoring supporters, high drama international summits, and so on) are all on hold. It would be striking if this was not affecting the way decisions are being made.