The emerging policy technocracy puts presidential appointees outside of the chief executive's reach in a way that narrowly focused iron triangles rarely can. Democratic political competition is based on the idea of trying to simplify complexity into a few, broadly intelligible choices. Issue networks tend to search out complexity in what might seem simple. To gain a reputation as a knowledgeable participant, one must juggle all complexities and demand that other technocrats in the issue networks do the same. In democratic politics, the major aim is to have a final goal of agreement.
Issue networks provide a way of processing dissension.
This aim is good policy and the right outcome on the issue. Those competing for leadership positions are expected to be sure of themselves and of what is to be done, while those led are expected to have a certain amount of detachment and dubiety in choosing how to give their consent to be governed. The issue networks tend to reverse the situation. The new breed of policy politicians are cool precisely because the issue networks are hot. The networks thrive on continuously weighing alternative courses of action on particular policies, not by suspending disbelief and accepting that something needs to be done.