Sadly, it seems to me that while they had no respect for the Pope under Paul VI, it wasn’t much better with JPII. He started off strong but after the assassination attempt, he backed off on things like exerting authority and reordering some of the areas that sure needed it. It’s probably not easy, to say the least, and some of JPII’s own appointments didn’t help him much. So there’s a backlog of rottenness there.
I think BXVI had planned to do more, but it is clearly a mammoth task because the Vatican bureaucracy is so huge and so entrenched. He has been changing some of the office holders, but slowly, and perhaps he will soon reach “critical mass” and, prompted by things like this, make more radical changes.
Sounds like you’ve done a good bit of study on Vatican politics. All I can say is, I’m sure glad I’m not Pope or otherwise caught up in that political viper pit. What a freakin’ mess.
It won’t happen in my lifetime, but it would be refreshing to see the changes wrought by the Second Coming; I gotta believe Jesus would have a far less bureaucratic administration.