I don't know, you might be right but I've found it much more effective to appeal to someone's idealistic instincts rather than their obvious character flaws. I

I don't know, you might be right but I've found it much more effective to appeal to someone's idealistic instincts rather than their obvious character flaws. In other words, many bureaucrats are exactly as you describe: Power hungry people who will take every opportunity to expand their little fiefdom. But generally they don't want to think of themselves that way or have other's think of them that way. They certainly don't want to hear it out loud. Again, you could be absolutely right. But in my experience very few people openly speak about being power hungry and those that do are far too aggressive to work as a Government bureaucrat.