There seems to be this bizarre narrative rising that agencies under the executive branch are somehow supposed to be able to run the government independently of the bothersome elected officials.

That is a bunch of bullshit. We live in a democratic republic, we elect representatives whose job it is to run the government. When it comes to executive agencies, the President is the boss. You refuse to take calls from the boss, you refuse to move in the bosses direction you are probably going to get fired.

This is a political position, whoever is in it works at the pleasure of the President. You don't like the direction the President is going, you vote for the opponent at the next election.

What would really be bizarre is if the executive government were independent of the executive. We would effectively have an administrative dictatorship with a puppet democratic government for show.

It is crazy to me the number of people in /r/politics the number of people that are ready to throw away democratic government in favor of autocracy simply because they think the current batch of bureaucrats is more favorable to their goals. I guess that's why even though I share a fair number of social policy values with leftists, I could never call myself a liberal or a progressive.