Mike Lux, who served as Obama’s liaison to the progressive community during the 2008 White House transition and has been critical of the administration since, argued that self-assuredness played a damaging role, preventing Obama and his team from seeing problems on the horizon. When would-be allies warned the White House about the looming dangers of health care insurance cancelations or the potential backlash to a Larry Summers Federal Reserve nomination, the advice was heard, but not necessarily heeded.

“I feel like the White House goes it alone too much,” said Lux. “In advance of a battle or even in the early stages of a problem, it doesn’t seem like they have gone out of their way to build unity and cohesion in the party and with progressive allies.”

A top progressive operative put it more bluntly: “These guys are stunningly arrogant. They really believe that their shit doesn’t smell, that they have all the answers. And that arrogance continues to hurt them.”

As for policy, insularity has become the enemy of originality, Lux argued. That’s led to an administration too comfortable with conventional wisdom. The president didn’t challenge the intelligence community over the surveillance programs, and he made back room deals that complicated the health care law unnecessarily.