Andrew Bailey, one of two deputy directors at the FBI, is leaving the bureau. His exit adds another ridiculous chapter to an administration whose staffing choices have turned basic management into a public spectacle.

Bailey arrived a little more than a year ago as a former Missouri attorney general and an extreme supporter of President Donald Trump. In this administration, loyalty to Trump was treated as the credential that mattered most.

Tax dollars went toward hiring Bailey even though the FBI had never needed two deputy directors serving simultaneously. The bureau needed another hand because Dan Bongino, a podcaster with no relevant experience running the FBI, was hardly providing steady leadership.

The outcome was not exactly difficult to predict. Bongino had entered one of the nation’s major law enforcement agencies without the background normally expected of someone helping lead it.

Just 74 days into the job, Bongino appeared on Fox and complained about how difficult it was to stop being a podcaster. His unhappiness helped create the absurd need for a second deputy director to help manage the workload.

Bailey did not bring relevant experience running the FBI either. Still, his recent work as Missouri attorney general at least placed him closer to demanding government responsibilities than Bongino’s career as a furious pundit.

Only a few months after Bailey was assigned to help stabilize the situation, Bongino left the bureau and returned to punditry. That departure did not end the unusual arrangement at the top of the FBI.

Christopher Raia, a career FBI agent, then began sharing the deputy director job with Bailey. Unlike Bailey and Bongino, Raia possessed the sort of professional bureau experience ordinarily associated with the position.

The arrangement effectively left Bailey, initially brought in to help supervise Bongino, with another experienced official alongside him. The bureau’s attempted solution to one unqualified deputy director had produced an increasingly crowded leadership structure.

Bailey also struggled to work with FBI Director Kash Patel. According to The New York Times, the two men sometimes went for extended periods without speaking to each other.

That breakdown captured the predictable result of staffing an administration with loyalists and media personalities instead of professionals equipped for the work. Rather than functioning as a leadership team, Bailey and Patel became another pair of competing personalities inside Trump’s government.

Patel repeatedly sidelined Bailey, and the arrangement apparently wore on Bailey. The former Missouri attorney general ultimately chose to leave, offering the familiar explanation that he was stepping down to return to his family in Missouri.

Bailey’s exit now leaves the bureau with another unresolved management question. It is unclear whether Raia will remain the sole deputy director or whether taxpayers will once again finance another official to share the role.

Meanwhile, Patel remains FBI director despite his own conspicuous performance. The administration is still paying for Patel to travel around, drink beer with sports stars, and enjoy himself while questions about his ability to perform the job continue.

There is at least one modest upside to Bailey’s departure. He can return to his family, but he cannot return to his former position as Missouri attorney general, giving the people of that state a temporary break from his presence in office.

The country, however, remains stuck with Patel at the bureau’s helm. Bailey is merely the latest participant to exit an FBI leadership structure that has required extra officials, produced prolonged personal feuds, and rewarded political devotion over relevant experience.

Patel could always follow Bailey’s example and leave to spend more time with his aspiring country singer girlfriend. Of course, that would mean arranging and paying for his own transportation, which may be one perk too many for him to surrender.