Some of them were intelligent, I'm sure, but they were there to ensure the peons did Noem's bidding and cause hate and discontent at the admin's direction. Given the opportunity, those who could leave, did. Not everyone could, and those who are left are under a huge amount of stress. /2
Same exact thing at hhs. Bad touching entire chains of command by installing puppet DASes, forcing downstream coverups of anything that could reflect badly on this admin (incl. System defects that harm the end user/taxpayer). Even the 'good guys' don't trust eachother not to rat for doge praise.