Many people (most?) consider "Machiavellian" to be an insult - essentially synonymous to "smart but immoral". Part of the West's ideology, for better or worse, is the idealistic belief that smartness and simple prudence/shrewdness can be separated from the negative aspects of Machiavellianism.
There's also recognition of the valid circumstance in which you're presented with choosing a lesser evil. If all choices are bad, choose the least bad, and those contexts change radically over different time frames.
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Many people (most?) consider "Machiavellian" to be an insult - essentially synonymous to "smart but immoral". Part of the West's ideology, for better or worse, is the idealistic belief that smartness and simple prudence/shrewdness can be separated from the negative aspects of Machiavellianism.
There's also recognition of the valid circumstance in which you're presented with choosing a lesser evil. If all choices are bad, choose the least bad, and those contexts change radically over different time frames.