The infrastructure bill and budget reconciliation were allowed to pass by both Republican and Democrat leadership (McConnell and pelosi as well as Biden) because it will be a series of stories that dominate the news cycle for a while as Delta variant news ramps up.
McConnell still has control of his caucus, and 19 republicans didn’t just vote for this because they were convinced by the loser moderates who came up with the infrastructure bill.
Both Republicans and democrats win here, and can avoid pressure to shut things down, extend UI, etc., and the positive press will fizzle out by the time 2022 comes around.
Edit: for the record, I think the change in CDC mask guidance was specifically rushed to overshadow negative headlines on inflation, unemployment/won’t someone think of the business owners, and Palestine.
It pushes the Biden is doing things agenda, while at the same time making all the details up for individual votes and thus each one their own news cycle, and each one the dems get to say they tried to do the right thing, but those darn republicans and moderates thwarted them and they couldn't do as much as they wanted...