As usual politicians have a significant share of the blame. Technically no the Fed isn't a political body but since it's power is given by politicians they get to influence decisions through their action/inaction/political pressure.
"So Jerome Powell is sitting here and he's late to the party. We had inflation starting a year ago and for reasons I would describe as political, which is, they did not announce his renomination in August like they usually do. They did it in November. They didn't put him up for the vote quickly, they waited longer than that. And I think he was paralyzed from raising rates, or reversing QE because he wanted to go and get the job. And he was concerned that if he took strong actions, the politicians would not reconfirm him. So I think he was hung up by politics for nine months. I think he would have gone earlier."
I don't have access to JPow's actual thoughts just political calculations should definitely be a factor when we are trying to put together the calculus in hindsight.