Having been in and around the IC for more than 40 years (almost exclusively at the operational level, minus one “detail” to the White House after 9/11), I can assure you that many - if not most - of the DC swamp dwellers can be likened to PhDs; they “specialize” in a VERY narrow area like North Korean proliferation issues and were considered “experts” in those areas. However, an NK analyst doesn’t know shinola about KGB/FSB intel operations. Moreover, there a LOT of senior-level former intel “officials” who don’t know shinola about intel operations at all - ours or anyone else’s.
As once was stated in a class on contracts, when i was a newbie gs-1910-9,
“Subject matter experts seldom are!”