SES. The Senior Executive Service.
They have risen up through the civil service bureaucracy for years to the point that they are almost impossible to fire, and they all work together to see that they all stay in charge. Once SES they never leave, and yes in the 30 years I worked for the government well over 90% of the SES I had the misfortune to work for are Libs.
can’t fire without sexual assault or serious robbery in full view.
or they just get drunk on the power and privilege that comes with the SES designation and they’ll do anything to keep that gravy train running.
SES are mostly agencies managers.
Pay gap between GS scale and SES is closing. SES do not get locality pay. Most of this mass of SES reside in level 5.
https://www.federalpay.org/ses/level-5
In DC a GS15 supervisor might make more than an SES but not the power.
As in the military a smart General knows to not buck or disrespect a career E-6 / E-7 the SES (lower scales SES 4/5 know to not go to war with a key and competent budget/contracts/technical career GS. They can make the SES look stupid or even worse incompetent and if vengeful illegal.
Having said that, many of the swamp are SESs that have surrounded themselves with GS lackies.