More importantly, I don't think debates over what is more or less democratic is the most important issue here. Something exceptional happened at the debate last month. The most important thing is to beat Trump, and if you want to win you have to try something new.

It wasn't exceptional, actually, the exact same first debate slump happened to Obama in 2012 (where the media claimed he botched it), and to Biden in 2020. Both times, Dems won.