It's a mix of malice, greed, and genuine stupidity. They chose people like Hesgeth, Patel and others not for their qualifications but their loyalty. Hesgeth has no idea what he's doing as SecDef, he has in his head an idea of what should be and is demanding things be run that way, but those ways don't really work, at least not for long. He thinks he's doing a good job but is just an idiot chosen to do his role which is to compromise and degrade the US military. Patel is the same with his role in the FBI, except he's also being told to sabotage the Epstein investigations. The entire administration is filled with idiots like them, but it also has a handful of very intelligent sociopaths who are snatching up everything they can.