OPINION:
America today is ruled principally by bureaucrats and government experts operating at the president’s direction.
For a long time, the United States has largely accepted this arrangement. Woodrow Wilson’s view that wise, apolitical and altruistic experts could govern better than the people has dominated the last 90 years or so of American governance.
But recent experience, especially the pandemic, has proved the unwisdom of Wilson’s vision.
Highly placed experts in government are no longer widely perceived as wise, apolitical or altruistic.
Many of them are seen as foolish, partisan and self-interested, just like so many others who wield power.