I asked my question when his wording suggested "career civil servants" should be in control instead of "Felon loyalists. I didn't think he really meant "control" in the full sense of the word , so I asked him to clarify. That's all.

I didn't mean to suggest that at all. Hopefully my previous reply cleared it up for you.

As an add-on:

My job was failure analysis. I went into the lab, diagnosed the problem, and -if all went well- got to root-cause. More than once, my supervisor at the time would tell me what he thought I should do. He was a manager with no F/A experience. I'd just nod, and then go do it the right way. I would accept instructions about which jobs had priority, but when I went to the lab I did it right based on my experience and knowledge. In the end, all the teams cared about was getting the right answer.

That is pretty much how the civil service works. You set them priorities (usually via legislation of policy), they get the job done. Don't tell them how to do it.