Testing of datepicker with protractor

[danielsuter]

Bug, feature request, or proposal:

I'm trying to e2e test with protractor a page containing a angular material datepicker. I'm using the latest version of Angular and Angular material (7). I'm matching the input field
await $('input[placeholder="mytext"]').clear();
await $('input[placeholder="mytext"]').sendKeys("01.01.2011");

The sendkeys works but not the clear. Usually that's the way to clear an input field. I'm using Chrome as a test browser.

What is the expected behavior?

$().clear() should clear the input field.

What is the current behavior?

$().clear() does nothing.

Which versions of Angular, Material, OS, TypeScript, browsers are affected?

Angular 7
Typescript 3.1.x
Latest chrome

[dik-garri]

@andrewseguin @vivian-hu-zz @mmalerba Any updates here?