More important, the greater size and expertise of modern government makes it less susceptible to political takeovers. To think that politicians would raid the civil service, you have to assume that they have an incredible capacity for both venality and stupidity, and the time to exercise both. In fact, modern presidents can hardly handle the 3,000 political appointments they have now. Because of constant scrutiny by opponents, politicians in Washington do not have the sort of vast appointment powers they might have in some states and cities. Presidents are in fact very constrained in who they can appoint to government jobs and how many appointments they can make.
Congressional scrutiny limits what they can do.
Not surprisingly, the worst abuses under spoils were in states and localities with little political competition, not in a two-party, hyperpluralist Washington. Rebuilding Public Service To its credit, the Clinton administration has at least acknowledged the non-performer problem, and has begun to act on it. In accord with the Poor Performer study, OPM issued a CD-ROM guide to help managers, Addressing and Resolving Poor Performance. This is more than previous administrations dared try, but probably too little, too late. Not surprisingly, as the longtime guardian of the merit system, OPM's basic inclination is to save a system that should probably be buried.