Finished season 4 last night. Still pretty solid, although I did notice some spots where they let the "science" part of Sci-Fi slip. Hopefully they don't make a habit of that, as IMNSHO that's one of the things that makes this show stand out.
As far as Mars.gov, They were always pretty communal "we all work for the betterment of Mars", I think we just spent more time on Mars this season, so it is more obvious. Also the upheaval caused by having two large, generational public works projects effectively rendered moot in a small timeframe was depicted pretty well, I think.