I'm confused about the amount of relative influence that Obama and the Clintons wield in the Dem party. My understanding of the party's relationship with Obama is that they're pissed at him because he ran the party like it was his private fan club and disregarded the needs of D politicians, leading to the party's massive losses (many senators and reps and over 1000 stage legislative seats) under his tenure.
The party's outreach systems collapsed under Obama and the Clintons rebuilt them for Hillary's 2016 run. She had total control over the party because she bankrolled them with the Clinton Foundation proceeds. Then after she lost the election they were somehow able to keep her from running again in 2020 and now it seems like Pelosi, Schumer and the DNC are the ones pulling the strings.
Is Obama behind any of this? Involved with Biden's run? He doesn't seem like the type to want to pull strings behind the scenes, he's interested in standing center stage in front of cheering crowds. The campaigning that Obama did for Biden felt like the absolute minimum necessary, anything less and people would be asking questions about why he wasn't supporting Joe. So what's the deal? Pelosi's visit with Soros suggests that she's looking for backing outside the usual political dynasties.
Internally, the DNC is divided between Team Obama and Team Clinton. For ages, Team Clinton ran the DNC from behind the scenes with the wilderness years of the Bush II years being spent preparing for Hillary's 2008 run and a Clinton Restoration.
Now while the Clintons had power, there was a LOT of people who didn't like Bill and Hillary but tolerated their rule because Bill and Hillary and their whole "third way" politics got the Democrats back into power at the White House. When Edwards bloodied Hillary's nose and proved that the public WOULD accept someone other than Hillary? These disgruntled Democrats, many of whom are progressives, flocked to Obama as their means to basically stop the Clintons from resuming power. Creating Team Obama in the process.
Now, the Clintons didn't take kindly to this and demanded a huge amount of concessions from Obama and his allies as Hillary was willing to crash the DNC with no survivors and get McCain elected if she didn't get the nomination. One of these concessions was a guarantee that Hillary, not Biden, would be Obama's successor in 2016 for the nomination. The other was Howard Dean getting fired from the DNC Chairmanship and it given to Clinton loyalists and basically it being turned into another arm of the Clinton machine; one who's sole purpose was to punish anyone who sided with Obama against Hillary and to ensure that the primary in 2016 was rigged in Hillary's favor.
The removal of Howard Dean was the key towards why Obama lost so many state/Congressional seats in 2010-2016. Dean was the architect of the "50 State Strategy"; which is to say that the Democrats didn't just say "fuck it" and let Republican controlled Senate seats, governorships, state legislation seats go unchallenged. Dean staged a massive 50 state blitz to get as many Democrats elected nation-wide, to the point that Dean ran Blue Dog/DINO Democrats in red states so that they might actually get Democrats elected in those conservative strongholds. It was because of Dean that Congress flipped blue in 2006 and stayed flipped in 2008. Now, Dean was paid handsomely to fuck off, with him getting cushy high paid do nothing "consultant" gigs when Clinton installed (IIRC Tim Kaine) to the position. And Obama didn't give a shit about Dean and preserving what he built, because keeping the Clintons happy was a higher priority.
The Clintons used control over the DNC machine to stage a multi-year PURGE of the party; primarying everyone who took Obama's side in 2008. It was rumored that Obama didn't care, because he was too busy being a rock star type and thinking once he got his half-measure health care reform bill passed, nothing else really mattered legislation-wise. He stabbed Biden in the back when Biden tried to launch an Edwards style primary against Hillary; the Bidens and the Obamas don't like each other but they both hate the Clintons, but Obama needed Bill's help in 2012 and that meant reaffirming Joe would get skipped over his turn to run in 2016.
Once Obama left office, Obama made a huge stink about staying in DC to "lead the resistance against Trump". Everyone and their mother expected 2016 and her defeat to be the Clinton's last hurrah; that as is tradition, they would finally fuck off into retirement and ceded all power in the DNC to Obama as is tradition when your successor leaves office in politics.
Obama found out, to his infernal horror, that the Clintons had no intention on giving up the Iron Throne. And after a couple of weeks of leaving office, Obama fled DC like a craven coward for Hawaii for a lengthy vacation there to pout and cry that the DNC told him to fuck off and they were still Team Clinton because Hillary/Bill weren't getting off the Iron Throne.
Then Charlottesville happened and you had Obama and Biden (not on good terms) reconciling in the wake of it after Biden finally convinced Obama that he backed the wrong horse (Hillary) and that Biden could have beaten Trump. So you had Obama gathering his forces behind the scenes to go after the Clintons, who found their own internal strength was not as strong as they thought it was after all. Obama managed to convince enough people to kill Hillary's plans for one more run in 2020 and Biden was given the annointing as the nominee, with Harris as the back-up choice since she was a consensus candidate that Hillary and her people would begrudgingly support if shove came to push. Warren, Sanders, Mayor Pete, Tulsi, etc all were trying to exploit the growing populist sentiment to avoid Biden/further their own ambitions to be President; but all fell once Hillary finally ceded power and the Iron Throne to the Obamas.