That's in part due to the civil service, which could continue to engage in skillful geopolitics irrespective of current office-holders, because of the workhorse

That's in part due to the civil service, which could continue to engage in skillful geopolitics irrespective of current office-holders, because of the workhorse of skilled employees with loyalty to country rather than an administration. That has changed. Now the civil service is the "deep state" which must be eliminated and/or controlled. Except to see a reduction in US geopolitical skill due to this political attack upon the civil service.