Many leaders who had the wherewithal to establish themselves in power can then coast on the inertial force of their authority and reputation for years or even d

Many leaders who had the wherewithal to establish themselves in power can then coast on the inertial force of their authority and reputation for years or even decades in a way that makes them continue looking capable. The frequent reality however is that coming to power politically isn't necessarily the same as keeping it or making sound decisions in many other area (such as military strategy). Thus, an established dictator can turn into a complete bumbler, but because of earlier successes in his domestic political arena, people keep thinking he has some sort of clever plan up his sleeve in any other scenario though it might not at all be the case. Hitler was an example of this. He cleverly came to power, astutely conserved himself in power for years, but then badly fucked up almost from the beginning once he embarked on major military adventures. However, many people kept believing him even militarily clever because of previous political cleverness. I believe something similar is the case with Putin (This is not a comparison of Putin with Hitler in moral terms, just an example)