The Pharisees deserved the bad rap. (Either that or Jesus was bearing false witness against them.)
Matthew 23 is a scathing denunciation of them - more or less a closing argument in the case against them, which had gone on throughout His public ministry. They had rebuked Him and His disciples for innocent acts. They had rebuked those who worshipped Him and who came to be healed by Him. They had opposed people’s recognition of Him as the Messiah. They had tried to trap Him time and again. They had plotted to discredit and even kill Him. And finally they bribed one of His apostles to betray Him, and would succeed in judicially murdering Him after a sham trial. Even after that, they continued their war against the Messiah by attacking His apostles and disciples.
Their hearts were so far from God that they would do all this to His Son. Jesus exposed and challenged their false religion, so they rejected Him. But the final battle would go to Him, as He predicted in Matt. 24.
There are many today who are just like the Pharisees. Their hearts are far from God, so they make up their own religion and peddle it under the name “Christianity”. They reject the truth and fight against those who preach it. They invent ways to worship Him that He never authorized, invent church structures and offices He never set in place, and even modify the gospel to get more people saved than He can (or so they think.) Like the Pharisees, they’ll pay for their hubris, and take many souls into damnation with them.
I suspect there has been a lot of confusion with the role of the Sadducees, whose Temple police actually had Jesus arrested. Likewise the imperfections on us all.
And as I also mused, why didn't Jesus include mention of himself in The Lord's Prayer which bears distinct similarities to the Amidah? One would think here was the perfect opportunity to bring forth uniquely Christian prayer. Yet instead, he stays within the context of The Law.