A collapse in the U.S. credit rating was never really on the table, according to interviews with senators in both parties. Instead, rank-and-file members stepped back to let Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell make hard-charging moves in their ongoing one-upmanship. McConnell insisted Democrats take the hardest possible path to raising the debt limit, Schumer said he would simply not pursue it, and they settled on a short-term hike that both spun as a victory — until McConnell faced blowback from reliable allies who questioned whether he’d picked a fight only to back down from it.

As the final agreement took shape, Schumer and McConnell appear to have held no personal conversations. Aides and emissaries handled the details, according to sources in both parties. As McConnell first devised an off-ramp to lift the nation’s borrowing cap into December, he called Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) before informing Schumer — and before he told his own caucus. Other Democrats, including Schumer, learned in a press release.

”Shadow-boxing,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), describing Schumer and McConnell’s latest long-range confrontation. “Because they don’t talk that much, it doesn’t seem.”