At the time I was pretty shocked how bad it was at the COA, but then I realized...the CIA is really just a metaphor for how large organizations everywhere run. A good example is how assignments are given out in the CIA. Your career progression very much depends on which region you get assigned to, or which embassy you get official cover wth. Very similar to say how sales territories are handed out and fought over at regular corporations.
Having just left a 100k+ person company, I can tell you it's a miracle of organization that a company that big can function. It's kind of like seeing a person weighing 1000 pounds trying to walk, or a 125 yr old man try to cross the street. The fact that they can exist / operate is awe-inspiring, expecting them to do anywhere near a good job seems to be out of the question. Obviously there are exceptions to this, and I hope more of them appear later on.
If you work at a big company though please don't be discouraged. It's almost impossible to have good processes for a company that big as mentioned above, so things are, ironically, even more dependent on people's actions and personal leadership.
Stefan Rudnicki (the narrator) is an absurdly good narrator. He regularly narrates the Lightspeed Magazine podcast, a sci-fi short story podcast, if that perchance interests you.
Laurence J. Peter: "In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties" [the corollary:] "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence."
What success did the CIA have, ever? List their failures is so easy, I'll start with the ajax revolution and Pinochet, both occasions where if the CIA had done nothing the world would be better and the USA stronger.
* Operation Ivy Bells (joint with USN and NSA, according to Wikipedia)
* Stuxnet, possibly (unclear who was responsible for it, although it's generally thought to be joint US-Israeli effort)
*yes, I'm making a joke. Mostly.