The Executive Branch was the marionette of the permanent agencies of the 4th Branch - it was operating itself and setting policy accountable to no one. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the last President to fully wield Article II authority was FDR. Truman just kept the seat warm; Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a military-industrial complex; JFK got ded; Johnson remembered what happened to the last guy; Nixon got Watergated; Ford also just kept the seat warm; Carter (who I believe was a genuinely compassionate person) was humored by the machine until he left; Regan's CIA ran rampant illegal ops the world over Bush I was the CIA Clinton was the beginning of the all-powerful 4th Branch as we would recognize it today Bush II was everybody's bitch Obama continued to grow the 4th Branch beast Trump, constant lawfare and 4th Branch covert rebellion Biden, 4th Branch fearless and authoritarian Trump, 4th Branch in open rebellion "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power." - 1984, George Orwell.