The "The Puzzle Palace" was published in 1982, Senator Churches emasculation of the CIA [no assassination] came during the late 1970s -- the Jimmy Carter years as I recall.
The issue at the time "The Puzzle Palace" was published was President Reagan's proposal to remove some of the "safeguards" (l.e., shackles) the Church committee had put in place. Frank Church was still around, of course, and cited Bamford's book as he spouted off about the awsome power of the NSA and the danger from the right...
Why do they always fear "the right" when it was the left that gave us virtually every murderous tyranny spawned in the 20th Century? The right didn't murder 135 million people, the left did.,