I really don't know.
To a certain extent, politics and policy can be difficult to seperate. But the White House insists that they did nothing inapapropriate--20 political briefings is par for the course and we are trying to "criminalize politics."
You might find these two first hand anecdotes interesting. They are what I can use to compare this administration to past practices of previous ones. More...
My father was a career Federal employee. As a young boy beginning to observe the phemnomena of politcs I asked him, "what party are we?" The question seemed to pain him, and I didn't really get a response. Later, I persisted and got back the answer, "Independent," with an explanation of what the Hatch act was and how Federal employees could not be involved in politics. He readily told me of individual votes he'd made for President, but throughout his career he insisted he was an Independent.
After he retired, he spent a great deal of time working with community organizations, often assuming leadership positions. His community work sort of pushed him into politics, where he was elected 5 times to the State Legislature as a Democrat.
I suspect he was a Democrat the whole time, but I know he took the Hatch act seriously. He wouldn't even tell his own son.
A more recent event occurred when I volunteered to do some campaign work for my local Congressman. I showed up at his office and announced that I was there to help with the campaign. There were two staffers there and they both had stricken looks. One said, "Let's step outside." When we did, it was explained to me that I had shown up at the District Office and no campaign work could go on there. He gave me the address of the Campaign Office, which is what I wanted. It made an impression on me that he stepped outside in order to give me the address.
Both of those events lead me to believe that the Hatch act is something that is supposed to be taken seriously.