“I have not changed Washington the way I wanted to change it,” Obama said. “And what I worry about in our politics is people getting impatient with the slowness of democracy, and the less effective Congress works, the more likely people are to start giving up on the core values and basic institutions that have helped us to weather a lot of storms.”

The president added that while he believed in political reform, institutional stability was key to maintaining a functioning democracy.

“The one thing I’ve learned in this job is that I have really progressive policy beliefs but I’m more conservative when it comes to our institutions,” he said. “I’ve seen enough around the world when it comes to the results of complete revolution or upheaval that it doesn’t always play out well.”