The new chairman is happy to take a back seat when it comes to day-to-day operations.

2004, My Life by Bill Clinton
But as with most kids, politics took a backseat to daily life.

The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.

Mr. August, a screenwriter for movies like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” said that while artificial intelligence had taken a back seat to compensation in the Writers Guild negotiation, the union was making two key demands on the subject of automation.

Take a back seat

Meaning

Verb