[Spooky23]

Irrelevant.

The Secretary is accountable, and has people working for him or her who serve at the Secretary’s pleasure.

[ceejayoz]

Irrelevant.

Most of the people working in the State department do not serve at the Secretary’s pleasure.

[Spooky23]

The bosses do. Government employees don’t just run around and do whatever.

[ceejayoz]

Those bosses are limited, both by law and by union contracts, in their ability to fire, punish, or reassign the career civil service professionals.

We learned our lesson on this way back in the 1800s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendleton_Civil_Service_Reform...

[Spooky23]

Have you ever worked for government? I have. There are a myriad of ways to do those things.

Civil servants tend to occupy a public perception of a bunch of incompetent idiots or a malignant threat. The reality is that they just do their jobs, and they are on the whole pretty good at it.

If you want unmanageable, replace the professionals with political people. Have fun getting Senator so-and-so’s kid to stop drinking at his desk or having county chairman such-and-such’s spouse not screw up everything they touch.

The United States did the spoils system for 100 years, it sucked.