Pence was a big factor there.
You may have a point about a "shadow government". I keep thinking back to William Burns going both to Ukraine and Israel (post October 7). If I were to surmise, whatever screwing around was going on in both those regions has gone so horribly bad that a 'principal' had to personally step in. And its still screwed up, imho.
Thing is, my experience has been that "design by committee" never works well.
Surgery was ‘elective’. Had to be gastro intestinal. He’s a big fella. That or a sex change.