[otoburb]

>>What's even less clear to me is why the apparatus of state seems so willing to go along with these whims of the executive.

Can you expand on this a bit more? Are you suggesting that government employees should quit in protest? For better or for worse, the American President is in charge of the executive branch and (most? all?) US government employees are part of that branch.

[ty6853]

Clearly they aren't as that would have implied Biden could have simply dictated that the DEA reschedule marijuana, which seems to have been effectively halted by stalling until Trump got in office by stalling the hearings until one day after swearing in.