I don’t know what to think about that. It is at least possible that he had become too old and frail to carry on. It is also possible that Pope St. John Paul II’s example of remaining pope through such burdens as Parkinson’s worried Benedict as to what happens when a pope has not resigned but is utterly disabled for an extended period of time-—effectively an interregnum.
Benedict came in as a “place holder” like some elderly Soviet functionary temporarily elevated to El Supremo while the real power struggle could go on sub rosa for the permanent replacement.
The Social Justice Warriors among the cardinals clearly won the power play, and Pope Marx is the result. That’s how I see it.