The legacy of the generation that survived WWII was:

- Big domestic policy mistakes cause bad outcomes, like the Great Depression.

- Big foreign policy mistakes cause extremely bad outcomes, like WWI and WWII.

- Big command mistakes in the military get people killed.

This led to a mindset that the people picked to be in charge had to be very competent. Or else. Almost all Cabinet members passed the competence filter until the Greatest Generation died off.