For president Coolidge, a sort of pity was only to be expected (7)
I believe the answer is:
typical
'to be expected' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'for president coolidge a sort of pity was only' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'president' could be 'p' (common abbreviation eg in VP) and 'p' is present in the answer.
'coolidge' could be 'cal' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'cal' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for typical that I've seen before include "Average" , "routine" , "Characteristic of a particular person or thing" , "Emblematic" , "Having the essential characteristics of a group" .)