Is a Zombie an Immortal?

The nature of government has evolved. A strike at the head of the government, a huge defeat in the field, an illness--which used to be a disaster to governments in the past--is barely noticeable now. The ship of state has so much momentum and mass that a change is only a matter of small degrees.

Take the Department of Energy. Originally created in the Carter administration to encourage American energy independence (when the Americans produced most of their own energy) with a budget of 1.6 billion dollars, it now presides over an energy landscape where the Americans produce less than half of their energy and the budget for the Department is 80 billion. No one has rushed forward to challenge the Department's success, their budget or their competence. The Department itself hasn't been shaken by its failures. The Department just rolls on, growing and growing and doing who knows what. When an incumbent is defeated the first thing the newly elected upstart does is call the defeated office to line up the incumbent assistants. Washington is so huge, so complex that the the entrenched, experienced functionaries are valuable for their navigating abilities. The infrastructure persists regardless of the leadership. The system slogs on, feeding itself, growing, with dull stare and mindless slobber, towards some end.