It also depends on the former party, while in office, setting precedents that would be misused by the former party, and then further misused by the current party.
I'm speaking mainly of executive orders and the Imperial Presidency.
There was a time when some idiotic pollsters and demographers looked into the future and saw Republican presidents as far as the eye could see. They told us not to worry about an Imperial Presidency and Executive Orders because it would only be Republican presidents that would wield such power. They said we had to give more power to the president because the congress was too Democrat and too liberal and wouldn't let us get what we needed into law.
Reagan got us a tax cut along with the beginning of massive budget deficits. He also got our military back to strength and helped to end the Cold War. After that I really don't see much that Republican presidents did for America. Most of the crap they did was just Democrat-Lite, e.g. Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, etc.
So we gave all that power to Reagan, Bush, and W and they did precious little with it. Now it is in the hands of Obama and he is going hog wild.
When the Republicans lost faith in the American People and decided to begin the transformation of this country from a government run by three branches to one run by the executive (with helpful hints from corporate cronies) it really seems like bad form to criticize the Democrats for just going them one better.
Wel said!