[smitty1e]

I'd like to differentiate between the Col. Jessup "You want me on that wall; you NEED me on that wall" class, and

...the specific Col. Jessup instance that breaks down and calls away a Code Red.

Our Civil Servants are neither civil nor (apparently) serving any but themselves.

How to avoid becoming a cure worse than the disease?

One thing would be to rotate these staffers more frequently, so they are less prone to what looks like GroupThink.