And at the risk of stating the obvious, one could characterize the morbid fixation of President Obama’s work-life balance as a symptom of what the libertarian scholar Gene Healy calls “the cult of the presidency” in his book of the same name. The remorseless expansion of executive power has profoundly undermined the balance of powers. The role of president was envisioned as something akin to a nonpartisan chief magistrate, a constitutional umpire who would faithfully execute laws passed by Congress. From early on, however, the presidency has had an air of quasi-mystical authority, making the men who’ve held the job a strange combination of superhero, hard-charging CEO, and national dad.

One wonders if we’d be better off with an unpretentious monarchy, modeled on the unpretentious bicycle-riding royal families of Scandinavia. A figurehead monarch could absorb at least some national attention, leaving the head of government space enough to do his job well while working civilized hours. Indeed, most affluent democracies are parliamentary republics, in which the president has a small handful of constitutional duties that are never too taxing. The job is often a sinecure offered to widely admired figures. The prime minister does the heavy lifting, yet without the quasi-mystical baggage. Or at least that’s how the theory goes.