The big infrastructure deal President Biden and a group of senators from both parties announced Thursday is about much more than infrastructure. It may well be a test of whether bipartisanship can survive in today’s Washington on any big subject.

After all, if bipartisanship can’t be achieved on infrastructure—the motherhood-and-apple-pie issue of our times, where every lawmaker gets to send some federal dollars back home for projects their constituents can see and use—where can it happen?

That doesn’t mean the $1.2 trillion deal—which would represent one of the biggest investments ever made in the country’s operating systems—is sure to survive. It will face serious challenges on both left and right and could fall off the rails at many points in the weeks ahead.

What this deal may have going for it, though, is the yearning that many officials in both parties have to show they still know how to do this kind of thing together—and perhaps some reluctance to be seen as the skunk at this particular garden party.

The picture that emerged Thursday, of a president walking out the White House doors to stand with senators from both parties to announce an agreement on a big piece of legislation, shouldn’t be as startling as it was. It used to happen regularly; now, it seldom does.