I know what you mean. The bureaucratic establishment allows people in low ranking public jobs to have a disproportionate amount of power over pretty much anyone

I know what you mean. The bureaucratic establishment allows people in low ranking public jobs to have a disproportionate amount of power over pretty much anyone. 9/11 seems to have made things worse for pretty much everyone. Governments went paranoid and chose the easy way: delegating extra authority on people that were not prepared to exert it. But border guards tend to be dumb and/or rude pretty much everywhere, so, don't take it too seriously.