Perhaps the addition of a discussion of Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy will provide sufficient amplification of the typical American attitude toward this institution to account for the negative connotation almost universally accorded the concept of bureaucracy in American culture, in which the bureaucratic imperative — however it manifests — is utterly despised. Indeed, Pournelle's relatively dispassionate criticism of bureaucracy may not go far enough to accurately convey the pure hatred held by the average American for bureaucrats and everything having to do with the institution of bureaucracy in both the private and the public sectors. It does not (for example) address the bureacrat's propensity for sloughing responsibility:

"There's a reason bureaucrats are seen as ass-coverers whose foremost priority is to ensure that they're never accountable for anything. It's because many bureaucrats really are ass-coverers whose overriding priority is to ensure that they're never accountable for anything. As a corollary, if things go wrong, support for the idea that you predicted it may be helpful in building your bureaucracy's importance at the expense of its rivals.

"This is as true within corporations as it is in the public sector or the military. If you've spent much time in the working world, you've seen this tendency in action." 

 ...which is (in American eyes) particularly despicable for its abject cowardice as well as its wastefulness, ineffectiveness, and inherently obstructionist effects.

 Hm. And while we're at it, how come we're not discussing the sheer Vogosity of bureaucracy?

 This attitude toward the bureaucrats doesn't really seem to be an exclusively American peculiarity at all, does it?