Bureaucratic interpretations become autonomous and resistant to change in late capitalism

Evidence

Neither the teachers, nor the Principals, nor the MPs could determine how particular directives had generated themselves, since they are not there in government policy itself. The answer was that the LSC ‘interpreted’ the instructions issued by the Department for Education and Skills. These interpretations then achieve the strange autonomy peculiar to bureaucracy. On the one hand, bureaucratic procedures float freely, independent of any external authority; but that very autonomy means that they assume a heavy implacability, a resistance to any amendment or questioning. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 101

Categorization

• SEED: A concrete case study (UK Further Education funding labyrinth) showing how nobody can locate who actually generates a directive — an essay angle on modern accountability theater where no one is author.
• XREF: connects to: Target-driven reform rewards bureaucrats while distrust of frontline workers degrades services; Bureaucratic consolidation language masqueraded reform as accountability while enabling concentrated power