Possibly, they had some reason that was relevant to governance. If the actor in a movie dies the character doesn't die, they just replace him with a new actor until it is narratively acceptable to write the character out of the show. A dead guy can be kept 'alive' and blamed for unpopular events that need to happen to restructure the world (Biden) or a dead guy can become a clown who draws attention to unpopular social ideas/directions creating a better soil for reformist sentiment and popular movements to grow naturally to counter those social ideas/directions.