Balance of powers

From Tower of Skulls A history of the Asia-Pacific War July 1937-May 1942:

Yet another Japanese policymaking participant exerted power outside the constitution: the elite bureaucracy. Its power rested in its functions: drafting legislation, controlling information reaching cabinet members, and implementing laws. Some of its most senior members would even become cabinet members. Supposedly a neutral body of "officials of the emperor," in practice the bureaucracy became politicized.

That sounds familiar. I wonder if that's ever not the trajectory of a large bureaucracy.