This isn't about white house staff or the teams that presidents select - this is about the huge bureaucracies run by unelected civil servants who usually reached their position through a combination of nepotism, cover-my-ass, corruption, and coercion. I know that sounds like an overly cynical view, but from first-hand experience and knowledge, it's just the way things are. There are a few who fill these posts and actually wish to do their jobs well, but they're the exception, not the rule, and are being increasingly pushed out - most are there to line their pockets and bask in their own perceived glory.

The whole democratic process is just smoke and mirrors to prevent the populace from revolting - and I think we all know it - which means that it can't work as it does now for much longer - hence the increasing militarisation of police, creeping liberty reduction, and all the rest - as they know this too, and power, once attained, is clung to at pretty much any cost, by the kind of individual to whom power over others appeals.