Chris Mullin, a British Labour Party MP from 1987 to 2010, held ministerial roles in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments. In a The Guardian op-ed, Mullin recognized that while not all politicians are power-hungry or corrupt, many aim for the greater good, yet admit to the strong temptation to cling to power.

Despots at least have the excuse that, having trampled their enemies and made themselves rich beyond the dreams of avarice, they can’t guarantee that were they to relinquish the reins of office, they wouldn’t be called to account for their misdeeds. Political leaders in a mature democracy, however, have no such excuse. A comfortable retirement awaits them—a good pension, lucrative memoirs and (should they want it) adulation on the after-dinner speaking circuit.

Power, of course, when finally achieved, is addictive. Having striven for so long to reach the top—nearly 50 years in Biden’s case—there is understandably a reluctance to relinquish office. The longer you are in power, the more messianic you become. “All prime ministers go mad after two terms,” one of Blair’s closest advisers once remarked to me, only half-jokingly.

The intoxicating nature of power can indeed cloud judgment and fuel a relentless pursuit to retain control, sometimes at the expense of ethical principles or the greater good.