Jules Witcover, syndicated columnist

WASHINGTON — You may not have noticed, but with Donald Trump out of the Oval Office and Joe Biden in, a semblance of the nation’s serious business as usual has already returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Congress is busily addressing the new administration’s $1.9 trillion American Recovery Plan to stimulate the national economy stalled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, as vaccines are flowing into the arms of millions of our fellow citizens in an unprecedented medical mobilization across the land.

Many Democrats and Republicans are resuming talking to each other, maybe not in the harmony we may wish. But at least it suggests our long national nightmare under an unqualified would-be dictator has given way to a government run by an ordinary Joe who vows to run the country according to the Constitution once again.

To be sure, internal squabbles within each major party continue. Biden’s nomination for budget chief has been rejected in the wake of frank doubts about her temperament and qualifications. Within in the GOP, a few brave souls are beginning to address whether they want their party to remain a wholly owned plaything of Trump or a return to its historic role as a partner in the two-party system that grew out of the Civil War.

The Democrats, for their part, seem to be settling in under Biden into their customary moderate-to-liberal mode. They are resisting pressures from their more progressive brethren such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to take more radical positions on major issues.

In all, plenty of political combat lies ahead. But hopefully it will occur within the bounds of traditional American goodwill and the pursuit of civilized accommodation, rather than the rancor of the Trump years.

The defeated former president has already served notice, in his fiery comeback tirade at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando last Sunday, that he intends to expand his grip on the Grand Old Party despite the aspirations of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a few others to sidetrack him.

As for President Biden, his opening intention is to ignore Trump as best he can, while pressing forward with his own modestly aggressive agenda to combat the pandemic along with its economic ramifications at home.

He clearly seeks to restore business as usual across the country as well to preserve the ideals of American self-governance so widely undermined in the Trump era. He certainly will make the most of the narrow majorities he now holds in both houses of Congress.

In terms of his personal temperament and his experience in Washington over early half a century, Biden appears so far to be a man meeting the moment. He offers generosity of spirit and empathy rather than narcissism and ruthlessness that marked Trump in office.

At a minimum, Biden has come to the highest office in a spirit of restoration and determination to set the nation back on its most noble and constructive course, emphasizing togetherness rather than intentional division in pursuit of personal power. Whether he can stay true to his history and instincts in the rough and tumble of politics will be seen in the months and years ahead.

There is something refreshing in the knowledge that the new man in the Oval Office knows his way around it and the political environment beyond, and appears motivated by “we” rather than “me.”

Editor’s note: Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcovercomcast.net.