It's not depressing at all when it comes to entities like the CIA.
And LOL at anyone who doesn't think that this isn't a party issue. When a Republican Administration is in office, Democrats make the circuit either on the hill or on the talking head shows every time they think the CIA has over stepped its bounds.
When a Democrat is in the Oval Office, if it weren't for a very few, very brave individuals we'd never know what the CIA was up to. I will say that many Republicans are complicit in allowing this to happen, so in that sense, it is institutional.
When nothing less than the NYT's and AP is calling the current administration the most closed and least transparent administration in modern presidential history, that's in perfect lockstep with the "hands off" you're hearing from the Oval Office on this issue.
Sadly it appears that some on this board are too naive to understand all of this.