"Illusion of change" is right.
I like him, but Captain America is a bit bland, that's why they have to keep doing this stuff to keep him interesting. That goody two-shoes "hip hip hooray for the good ol' USA" stuff worked for a few decades, but there needs to be more to it than that in modern times.
I don't know why people are upset over it. It's pretty standard for DC & Marvel to have their characters be out-of-character these days in order to garner interest/controversy. Both companies always look for shock to get a bump in sales. And there's going to be some type of out for it anyway, probably what's already been suggested about Red Skull altering reality -- something that both companies love doing and often use as crutch.