WOW!
This would come as quite a shock to the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, to anyone who has read Lumen gentium, (the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), and indeed to anyone familiar with The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
I'm not sure if you're a Roman Catholic, but even if you're not and owned a TV back in April 2005:
the funeral you may have seen on international television and the subsequent election and proclamation of the deceased's successor could hardly be categorized as "the changing of the bureaucrat in charge."
In fact, your description is about as far off as it could possibly be, both as regards the nature of the Church and the Petrine Ministry.
The poster is asking about the infallibility question - that is, as if every word that comes from the Pope's mouth is infallible, a common Protestant misunderstanding. In terms of being in charge of the Church, the Pope is not speaking on his own, but is actually speaking out of the accumulated traditional belief of the Church when he speaks infallibly.
In terms of running it, he (unfortunately, in some cases) is not a dictator, particularly since Vatican II with its "collegiality" focus. He is in a sense the coordinator and manager of this group of ecclesiastical bureaucrats (in the nicest sense of the term!), just as Peter was the chief and representative of the entire group of Apostles and thereby of the entire Church. But his day to day administrative powers can wax and wane, and the idea of this that Protestants have - that the Pope says "do this" and it is done - is far from the truth.
As for the personal affection of the faithful for the Pope, that probably depends on the Pope in question.