The Meaning of Scott Pruitt

As everyone knows by now, Scott Pruitt was fired by Trump after a spate of really cheesy scandals.

There is a precedent, the tenure of Anne Gorsuch Burford, head of the EPA from 1981 to 1983.

What happened then, and what is happening now is very similar:  You have a very public, and not particularly competent, bête noire, who has people screaming, and the press covering their misdeeds obsessively, but this is largely a diversion.

While we have been looking at Pruitt's cone of silence, his sweetheart deal with his landlord, his using staff for personal errands, etc., Trump and his Evil Minions^™ were forcing out senior career civil servants and replacing then with "burrows" who are implacably opposed to the mission of the EPA, demoralizing the whole staff, and shredding the organization.

His tenure was as long as it was because it was sufficient to achieve the underlying goals.

Once that was done, he was expendible.