As if nobody ever plays a role in real life.

I’ve certainly never heard of anyone, say, sucking up to their boss to keep their job or get promoted when in reality they hate his guts.

Or parents playing good cop/bad cop to suss out which of their children did something bad.

That would be ridiculous. People are always fully direct and honest, especially in politics. They work for us, don’t you know. That’s why we get to choose whether we pay them or not when we’re unhappy with the job they’re doing.