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A quick explanation for non-US friends. Before the national election, we have a "nominating process" in which the self-identified party members actually conduct a set of state by state (never at the same time) election to select a single candidate for President that runs independent of the party.
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For US readers, this doesn't happen elsewhere. The party picks the candidate, and whichever party has the most legislative winners, their candidate becomes Prime Minister / Head of the Government.
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One of the few things that binds Americans is the desire to "fix" Washington every four years. So we often vote for someone that is NOT a "Washington Insider" for President. .
Obama, Bush the Younger, Clinton, Carter, Reagan... none of these men served in the National Legislature longer than 3 years before running for President. And the losers, McCain, Kerry, Dole, Gore - most of them were "Washington Insiders".
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But, we continue to re-elect our own legislator - for a long list of reasons, but incumbency has massive value in the election. (Presidents are limited to, at most, two terms).
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So we have smarmy, savvy, self-important and almost untouchable Representatives (both House and Senate) and then we get a neophyte, inexperienced President trying to get his policies implemented. It is a recipe for disaster. I'm surprised it hasn't blown up more.
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But Clinton and Reagan governed buy persuasion and popular support (at times), and did the best - but both of their administrations were successful only when the public was obviously behind them. They were also great at taking there message to the people. Bush the Younger and Obama were / are hampered by being terrible communicators. Obama gives a great speech, but he can't communicate on a daily level.
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I worry that this pattern will continue with Cruz or Rand Paul or a yet to be named on the Democratic side (Hillary looks like a lock now, but she did 8 years ago at this time).
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I see no good way out of this, just a sad observation that our process, designed to make our government more responsive to us; has, instead, made it dysfunctional.