Sounds like your friend is like the majority of policy advisors in every branch of government.

I had once assumed political leaders would rely on expert testimony and a rational decision making model to form public policy. The deeper I get into my studies (public policy), the more I realize this isn't true. My various professors that are, or have been, senior policy analysts for the provincial and federal governments all have one thing in common; their not-so-subtle attitudes towards the pointlessness of their work. It's very rare for their recommendations to be adopted or warnings to be heeded. One of my professor's lamented that the public would be dumbstruck if they saw how policy decisions were made within a cabinet meeting; picking policy choices out of a hat would yield more effective results in many cases.

I can only imagine how frustrating of a career it'd be. Day after day, you watch poor decisions knowingly get made by people who measure costs and benefits by hollow political pandering points. Meanwhile, as someone who is passionate and knowledgable on the very policy field your superiors are pissing on, you are constantly reminded of the enormous tax dollars that are wasted on worthless gestures that are not in the public's interest. The more I learn about how our government operates, the more I think we should do away with politicians all together. A technocracy seems like a more productive alternative.