"This answers the question, how did it come to this, where the people in charge of the most powerful empire ever, albeit one in decline--are all such caricatures, such monsters, such pathetic clowns? " This is pretty normal. What is valued is sycophants who won't rock the corruption boat. Gorbachev got where he was by charming the old Politburo guys vacationing in Sochi.

My "favorite" example is the Kosygin/Brezhnev decision. Max Frankel interviewed Kosygin and said it was like pitching batting practice to the Yankees. Alexi hit everything out of the park. Meanwhile, Brezhnev was demented. Once in an important speech he got to the bottom of a teleprompter page and started over again from the top. Brezhnev was chosen to "lead" the nation because he would never interfere with anyone's corruption. The Biden presidency reminded greatly of this.

I'm also told there is a strong tendency to hire people less capable than oneself. They aren't a threat to replace you.