There are two (or three) narratives about the CIA:
1. They are behind everything, and malevolent besides. This is very old, and was a staple of third-world paranoia. It was an explanation for every local failure, deficiency, and cock-up.
2. They are utterly incapable, witness the roll-up of their entire Chinese humint network. They have always been the gang that couldnt shoot straight, and was always two steps behind the KGB/GRU, not to mention Mossad and MI5/MI6.
2b. The CIA is worthless abroad because it is obsessed with domestic spying and active messures.
No matter how you look at the CIA then, they are a catastrophe waiting to happen.