I think the president has little control over day-to-day operations, but Trump seems to be fighting that inertia (or people in Trump orbit are; I agree with you it's not necessarily him personally).
On the other hand in unusual situations (perhaps manufactured by those in power) the president (or people around him) seem to be able to impact things more greatly.
Lincoln and (Franklin) Roosevelt behaved in extremely unusual ways in response to somewhat unusual circumstances. I very much doubt the circumstances were ever extreme enough that Reagan or Clinton could have emulated them, regardless of their aspirations.