Procedure has to evolve, but the point I was trying to get across is that making arbitrary changes to let powerful people do what ever they want is bad.
If the rules are bad, then work with the whole team to change them. Don't just ad-hoc fiddle, that makes procedural debt.
Yes - in a high-functioning, professional outfit that'd be quite true. Vs. this item is about a huge US Gov't security organization. Try searching on a few phrases like "FBI incompetence scandal". Or similar for "CIA", or "NSA", or ...
The best that we can realistically hope for is that they'll muddle toward being better, as older managers retire and the org's social consensus drifts away from "Competence Theater is good enough", "CYA is SOP", and "Phrenology works".
If the rules are bad, then work with the whole team to change them. Don't just ad-hoc fiddle, that makes procedural debt.