I'm going to take that as a rhetorical question, Doug.
In the early days of the project, we had a rec'd anecdote
about Forest Service conventions; apparently a true story:
A convention (one of the many) was held in Montana and the local rental agency had a special on white Lincoln Continentals just for the occasion.
When a convention session broke up one afternoon and the conventioneers all went to the bar, on exit later that evening, Forest Service conventioneers were beside themselves trying to make their set of keys fit in the right white Lincoln.
One of the things I noticed about these people is that they are largely transient. I think that this is a large part of the problem. They don't put down roots and connect with the local communities. They swoop in for a year or two (sometimes driving white Lincolns) and could care less how the local rabble feel about things.
When there is no connection, these people don't feel responsible to the true stewards of the land-the ones that live there, work and raise families there. They really only see the locals as obstacles to their career. After a while they move to another National Park and never look back.
Local governments should take more control because it matters to them what happens in their own back yard. The USFS and NPS have been miserable failures because they just don't care.
Your rental car anecdote made me think that many of them are of a short term rental mentality in a community. I would like to see almost any other agency take charge of wildland fires. It would be a good umbrella for Homland Security to provide, with States, themselves having more control of the use of resources.