That’s a great analysis man. I never even really thought about it like that but you’re right. Batman bows out after Jason dies and never really owns up to how much his own methods have failed. Also Bruce is
directly responsible for what happened, with the death of Jason being repeatedly implied to be the turning point for the government throwing down the gauntlet with the heroes. Clark even says as much himself “when they came after us, you were the one they all pointed at”. And Bruce basically just goes “well yes but **** you”, which may be “badass” but is a pretty weak rebuttal. However I’ll offer two things in defense:
1. Unlike now where Batman has Kryptonite up to his eyeballs, DKR Batman doesn’t have any Kryptonite stockpiled and has to make some which in his own words “took years and cost a fortune”. Granted we don’t know if Bruce grew that Kryptonite in his younger days, or if he’s been growing it on the downlow during his retirement, but if it was in his old age that offers a defense for why he stepped down. He didn’t have the means to go up against Superman, so when Clark laid down the law Bruce folded.
2. Bruce does agonize over his failures with the Joker by planning to kill Joker and saying stuff like “all the people I murdered by letting you live”, so he does acknowledge that when it comes to Joker specifically he’s completely flubbed the job even if he regresses to blaming Clark for everything as you pointed out.
Also I don’t know if this is true or not but my memory is telling me Clark ripped Ollie’s arm off to save his life, but ended up turning him over to the feds which made Ollie feel betrayed. Of course Ollie is also a dick who is eager to take shots at Supes and the other “mainstream” capes whenever he can. Funny how the self proclaimed champion of the little people is always ever so eager to team up with his fellow morally ambiguous billionaires when it suits him
All that said, while I still like DKR and regard it as a seminal work that paved the way forward for Batman and comics in general, Miller Batman isn’t
my Batman. Way too psychotic. Morrison/Scott Snyder/Tynion are the guys who write
my Batman.