[diogocp]

> Except that's largely not true - government agencies always (with very rare exception) implement the will of Congress, as directed by the President.

That was indeed the norm. When Trump became President in 2017, things changed. It became politically acceptable to be political. [1]

I don't know why things changed. It coincided with a period of increasing political polarization, but some of it can only be described as Trump derangement syndrome.

What is clear is that things did change, and dramatically so. Unelected bureaucrats came to believe that their understanding of "the national interest" superseeded that of the elected President, and that that justified not just dissent, but insubordination and sabotage. Democracy cannot work like this.

What is happening now is the logical consequence of the short-sighted actions of these people 4-8 years ago.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house... / archived: https://archive.ph/jROnq

[ModernMech]

> It became politically acceptable to be political. [1]

Miles Taylor was a political appointee, not a nonpartisan career federal employee.