Rolling back the US presidency is going to be an uphill battle, assuming the next Democratic president is willing to undertake it.

It would take some work in Congress, in particular, to repeal a number of bills of the Bush era. I agree that the president's initiative, or lack thereof, would be a big factor. Watch out for the presence in the new administration of people from David Addington's school.

The New Yorker: The legal mind behind the White House's war on terror

Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration's legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share--namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it.