[rightbyte]

> It takes time to gather candidates for a narrowly-scoped job description, coordinate interviews that work with their schedule, get approvals, and push the hire through. ... communications without progress is misinterpreted as a negative signal by a lot of candidates

I would rather guess it is interpreted as that they are the 2nd or 3rd choice and that you are still holding the lure. Candidates are probably just going for other choices if they have any.

If the recruiting manager doesn't have mandate to close recruites there is no way to make anything smooth.