Back in the ’80s, with foreign companies cleaning our clock, America’s business world embarked on a restructuring which lead to the productivity improvements which drove the economic expansion we are still seeing today. American news watchers learned several new terms back then. The most notorious of those being hostile takeover. Another is Turnaround Expert – the hired gun C.E.O. brought in specifically to shake things up and find new profitability in floundering companies.

America’s complacent, entrenched management culture, not to mention it’s cultural elite, feared and reviled the turnaround expert. This was because the job inevitably entailed handing out pink slips to all who were expendable, and heaping new duties on those who were not. It didn’t ease their ire any that the turnaround expert frequently brought in his own team to breathe new life into the place.

Today, the tactics of the turnaround expert have become business as usual. The possibility of getting downsized is something we’ve all learned to live with. Well, at least that’s how it is in the private sector. As usual, government is running behind the curve. The CIA, in particular, had become bloated, complacent, and inefficient.

So, when I see the controversy concerning Porter Goss’ takeover of the CIA, it just tells me good things are happening.