They have been allowed to grow fat and lazy under Bush and Obama.
Time to build up the lean and mean org that they should be.
Some former SS agents I know love to call it the Silly Service. I don’t know their motivation.
The organization was like two separate offices in one: protection and investigations. Investigations handled conterfeiting, US bond forgery and similar crimes, later credit card fraud. Protection handled dignitary protection.
When protection needed local support, they drafted agents from the local offices first and then at the time other treasury agencies like ATF and the IRS. I suspect the agent in question was not a protection agent. FWIW, the agent in charge of the president’s detail had direct access and could impart unsolicited info.
The retirement for agents were different depending which part of SS they worked under. Protection was under the DC retirement plan. That plan was distinct from the general civil service retirement and as such individuals could upon retirement work in the civil service with no loss of benefits.
A good deal of this all changed in 2003 and what the current status is I have no clue.