The reason Democrats couldn't do more is because not enough people voted for them, so they can only be angry with themselves. We would have had a public option if Congress didn't have to rely on the Blue Dog democrats. IMO Democratic voters have unreasonable expectations for their politicians and Republicans basically have none. Did Trump face any consequence to failing to pass a border bill during his administration?
Obama was apathetic at best in pursuing the public option once he got elected. He made a deal with the hospital lobby early on to drop it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20211027180129/https://www.nytim...
It's not exactly secret knowledge of who would opposed a public option because their constituents fear "death panels."