Bureaucracy in general exhibits that kind of hysteresis. It is like a running average of who has been in charged mixed with a big dose of the culture that people who choose that sort of career create. Ironically, that inertia is considered by political scientists to be a safeguard for democracy.
It hits different when the bureaucracy's job is to collect and exploit secrets, and act in the shadows.
It also “hits different” when you’re the group paying for the bureaucracy.