Now that the Avengers is over, hopefully the screenwriters will be able to breathe while writing the second one. CA:TFA had to accomplish a lot: introduce Steve, his relationship with Bucky, Peggy, and transformation to Captain America; introduce Red Skull, Hydra, and add to the foundation of the MCU (the Tesseract, references to Odin's War with the Frost Giants, among others,) and also lead to the Avengers. Now that all of that has been accomplished, I hope that they relax and focus more on characters and the related mythology.
I have mixed thoughts on the "Political Thriller" description: I will elaborate upon them later.