[nathanbedford]

… Or properly overseen.

This can be a benign force for a limited period of time until it becomes, like all bureaucracies, dug in and self-aggrandizing.

Or,

it can become like the whiz kids that surrounded Franklin Roosevelt and did generations worth of mischief.

[sargon]

This can be a benign force for a limited period of time until it becomes, like all bureaucracies, dug in and self-aggrandizing.

Or,

it can become like the whiz kids that surrounded Franklin Roosevelt and did generations worth of mischief

So only negative outcomes are conceivable?

[FreedomPoster]

Your first option has been formalized by Jerry Pournelle as The Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

I’m a big Pournelle fan.