I was going to say that Python fixes in programming languages whatever Markdown fixes in other plain-text markup syntaxes. But thinking about it, you're right -- it fixes the tendency of other languages to invent special syntax to represent standard, frequently used concepts. Python follows the conventions you might use when sketching out an idea on a napkin, and takes each convention to its logical, parser-friendly conclusion.

There are few language features that would be hard to succinctly express in a line of pseudocode. ("If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.")

Result: straightforward, algorithmic code looks like pseudocode, and any code that uses special language features really pops out -- if you see an at-sign or double-underscores, you know something Python-specific is happening.