Americans will miss their government when it’s gone

[DUBAI] In Hermann Hesse’s novel The Journey to the East, a group of pilgrims sets out on a spiritual quest, guided by Leo, a seemingly humble servant who tends to their needs and keeps them organised. But midway through the journey, Leo suddenly disappears, and the pilgrimage collapses into chaos. The travellers, who believed themselves to be the journey’s true leaders, are lost without Leo’s quiet but essential presence.

The same risk follows from the loss of seasoned government professionals – the career civil servants, administrators, and experts who keep the modern state running smoothly, usually far from the spotlight. When they are abruptly defenestrated – as is happening at key US agencies such as USAID, the FBI, the CIA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Institutes of Health – governance does not simply continue as usual under new leadership. Rather, fragmentation, inefficiency, and dysfunction prevail – just like among Hesse’s pilgrims. Though he is just one man in Hesse’s story, Leo represents all the anonymous bureaucrats and civil servants who keep the ship of the state afloat.

At the heart of this issue is the principal-agent dilemma, a concept introduced by economists Stephen Ross, Michael Jensen, and William H Meckling in the 1970s to describe a problem that can arise when one party acts on behalf of another. In government, political leaders (the principals) rely on bureaucrats or officials (agents) to translate their decisions into action. While political leaders naturally want their directives to be followed precisely, bureaucrats are guided by their own specialised knowledge, ethics, and imperatives to prioritise long-term stability over short-term outcomes.