Politics

Here's a good example of how politics, by its very nature, produces incompetence even the priorities of the people at the top were to do a good job.

"The newly hired director for Massport, the bureaucracy that runs Boston’s Logan Airport, frankly admits, “I’m obviously not an expert in aviation…” So why did Massport’s board choose him? There are probably many reasons, including favors owed and personal ties, but the one for public consumption is “He’s a guy that cares about public service.”
Yep, I kid you not. Thomas Glynn has spent most of his life slurping at the public trough: he was the “general manager of the MBTA, and US deputy labor secretary in the Clinton administration.” Which allows Massport’s board to gush, “He has a tremendous track record, whether it’s … in labor or in transportation. And so while he’s being modest about maybe not being an expert on flying a plane, it’s not why we hired him. We hired him because he’s a tremendous leader and public servant. And what the board expects and the governor expects is a leader to take what we believe is a good agency”"

It's the same reason a political hack like Leon Panetta because head of the CIA then Secretary of Defense. And these people do not put doing a good job at the top of their priority list. They put the political aspirations of themselves and the bosses at the top of the list.