The President is not a generally competent pandemic-response person. His strengths are elsewhere. But the people who have held the jobs that were intended to be experts on this failed and are failing. The rot is institutional because bureaucrats always outlast elected administrations.

Naturally, the "useful idiots" that the bureaucracy exploits are an additional problem. I haven't yet determined if they're a minor problem or if they provide the weight of opinion. If you have a thousand people who will say "Masks don't work" if the CDC says "Masks don't work" are the thousand people more dangerous or the CDC more dangerous. Probably the CDC, I think.