if i were the deep state 'cleaning house' why would i hitch my wagon to the walking corpse instead of hand-picking a better successor? if the natsec ghouls are in the drivers seat, they'd be not worried about trump (idk why you assume he'd be incompatible) or if they were, they'd be ditching biden.

overall the debate was just farce and hubris, no need to add behind the scenes designs to what can be elegantly explained from incompetence & arrogance