The Clintons engaged the press constantly because both of them are lawyers. But in using their time this way they neglected to run the country (which IMO is what led to 9/11).
Bush decided to use his energy to keep us safe and keep the economy moving and he did those job well. Should he have done the "engagement thing" too? Not if it meant that the other jobs would have been neglected IMO.
This Bush family doctrine of post presidential politeness is handing Dems the keys to the revisionist bulldozer.
Think about the last Republican presidencies...Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush. No one wanted to defend the Nixon/Ford presidencies. At the end of his second term, Reagan was done with politics and GHWB was a reluctant defender of Reagan's policies. Clinton quickly learned he could say anything about his predecessor, and nothing would happen. The press will repeat any accusation a Dem makes, and as long as the Bushes maintain their family policy of remaining "above the fray", Obama's absurd claims about the economy, and the Pelosi budget he inherited, are morphing into revised history.