The fight among politicians and bureaucrats is a fight among mean guys
When Bribesville blasted in 1992, I wasn’t surprised. I had opened my first detective agency near Bergamo just four years before but, having worked with many investigative agencies in Milan, I knew very well the story of a famous private detective, owner of a detective agency in Milan, who (for mere personal and party interests) had tried in the early 70’ to expose the corruption of our politicians with telephonic interceptions (then allowed). They immediately reacted and in unison declared the interceptions illegal (retroactively!). The private investigator had to leave the country and live like an exile for some years before being able to come back in Italy.
In 19992, after Bribesville, a hidden war was triggered and has been going on for years in which politicians are fighting against the bureaucrats. It’s a fight among mean guys seeking after additional personal economical privileges and benefits.
The case that blow up on the wage increase of the INPS President, Pasquale Tridico, is just the tip of the iceberg in this hidden conflict. Unfortunately, I could see the whole iceberg. I could witness it not because I’m an acute politic analyst or an independent valid journalist (who seem to be disappeared in Italy), but because many wives of the “class” turn to my detective agency Octopus for the divorce and the economical agreements: it’s striking the amount of dirty tricks that a woman can find out about her husband during the marriage and that she can secretly tell to her private detective (and to her lawyer) during the separation.
After all, it’s known that “mani pulite” was somehow triggered or accelerated by the conflict on  the unpaid child support payments from Mario Chiesa (the one of Pio Albergo Trivulzio) to the wife Laura Sala. My detective agency hadn’t Laura Sala as a client, but many other women like her. With all of them, the issue was always the same: turn the husband in, ending up like Sansone and the philistines under the control of a scandal, or wait, hoping in the reasonableness of the ex-husband for an adequate alimony. All of this while the disgusting things that our ruling class is capable of to keep power and money were going on.
To say this in a simple and short way (before spasm of vomiting starts occurring): during the first republic our politicians were able to control with impunity a huge amount of money and easily have access to them, appeasing their appetites. After the Bribesville inquiry, they had to let the bureaucrats, with whom they are in an endless competition, in their shameful banquet. This is something that turns the decent necessity of fights among poor people into something to regret.