Sadly you are correct. The damage to the public confidence in the FBI caused by this is so great that I am not certain they can recover. The reality is all law enforcement must rely on public cooperation and there are two ways to get that cooperatiion intimidation or public respect. Shooting innocent kids does away the earned respect side of the coin so that leaves them intimidation.
On another thread an agent said to a former agent investigating "You are either with us or against us." Well that about sums it up. how is the typical state or local LEO going to react to a Febbie when they see one them walk on this one. They already have a rep as being arrogant sob's who try to grab the glory without doing the work. The perception of them being an arbitray secret police force that exists to wreck havoc on American citizens is already there. The perception that they may be dropping the ball on national security is already there. Hey somebody in a position to exercise authority ought to at least have the B*lls to say bad Fibbie no donut. Instead this will ikely be used to gain a political club over a large part of the agency by Angelos and we shall pay a subsequent price nationally.
On another thread you pointed out that even local LEO's are facing some major anti-gun pressures combined with unaccountable federal police this does not bode well for our Republic. I only hope Travis gets out his book before it is a historical novel.
Stay well - stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown