Wasn’t Biden also Vice-President? Or do I misunderstand the argument you’re making?
What you want to do is to ask for results, and leave it to them to decide how to achieve them. In other words, what you want is a leader. Even in cases when the ultimate decision is yours, you consult with them before you decide, because they’re the one who will have to do it.
It’s like in the military: the general tells the colonel, “Take that ridgeline”; the colonel tells the captain, “Take that hill”; the captain tells the lieutenant, “Take that slope”; and the lieutenant tells his men, “Follow me”. Every one of those officers is a leader, and any one of them could be a general one day
If you’re the one making all the decisions, why do you even need them for?
And yet, micromanaging is a thing.
It’s a defective pathological counterproductive thing, but it happens. It wouldn’t surprise me if it happens a lot in the current administration.
One reason of many I’d never vote for a Trump cabinet member for President.
People like us might pay attention and notice whether or not a given Cabinet official is doing a good job. Most Americans? Yeah, riiiight.
ETA:
Again, you’re assuming that Americans even think about it that much.
At least in terms of electoral results, being a Cabinet secretary is far from comparable to being VP.
Let’s limit ourselves to the post-WWII era. (The past is a different country, if you go back far enough.) During this time, 14 different people have been President. Here’s the highest offices they held before becoming President for the first time:
VP, succeeded on Pres. death/resignation: 3 (Truman, LBJ, Ford)
VP, elected President: 3 (Nixon, Bush Sr., Biden)
Governor: 4 (Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush Jr.)
Senator: 2 (Kennedy, Obama)
Other: 2 (Ike, Trump)
Cabinet: 0
One thing about the VP: people are aware of the VP in a way that they aren’t of any Cabinet official. Other than Rockefeller and Ford during their short tenures as VPs, the VP has been the President’s running mate, running and winning as the visible #2 man or woman on a national ticket. Regardless of their job responsibilities, the VP starts off more well-known than all but the most exceptional Cabinet picks, not to mention being the proverbial heartbeat away from the Presidency, as implicitly noted above. Even when Tom Lehrer sang “Whatever became of Hubert?” people knew who he was talking about.
Totally off the topic, but putting together this table reminded me of a question: who was the last losing VP candidate to later become President?
A. FDR, who was the losing Dem VP candidate in 1920.