And it's not some theoretical idea, in all Western democracies, every civil servant that has been in place for long enough has seen governments from multiple political sides. That's how it works.
Using illegal means to purge the institutions from undesired people is not something that happens in a democracy, this is unprecedented in the West since Gleichschaltung.
Have you forgotten Trump's first presidential term? The resistance [1], the gleeful celebration of the "deep state" fighting back against Trump [2], a US general calling his Chinese counterparts before the 2020 election [3]?
Bureaucrats cannot fight against a democratically elected executive, call themselves the resistance and then be surprised when they are treated as the resistance.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/opinion/trump-fauci-deep-...
[3] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-top-general-secretly-cal...
In a democracy, a civil servant must respect the law even if it goes against orders. When all you have civil servants who respect their boss's orders even when it goes against the law, you have left the domain of democracy.
for example, you are defending firing workers for: “People are just going to have to accept the results,” he told The Washington Post. “I’m a Republican. I believe in fair and secure elections.”
...some dangerous deep state, indeed.