My feeling with discussion about the "deep state" is that it understates the difficulty of organization. It's hard enough to get an explicitly public/structural

My feeling with discussion about the "deep state" is that it understates the difficulty of organization. It's hard enough to get an explicitly public/structurally aligned/highly incentivized group of workers at a company to stay organized (the failure of the unionization movement is a stark example, but even mainstream companies struggle). More likely, it is that careerists naturally produce work that reinforces long held beliefs and values - it's a big ship and it doesn't turn quickly. If leadership comes in and starts doing things that work against those values then the careerists might fight those directions, do them slowly, do them poorly. In a small company those underperforming workers would probably be fired. In a very large enterprise it might be difficult to locate those workers and/or costly to replacement if they have specialized knowledge/skills.