>>3467
>Simply put, cronyism, nepotism, sycophancy and ideological virtue signalling are the names of the game, not Meritocracy
And its extremely intentional. The people behind creating the environment for those people to thrive designed it that way, because they foresaw less need for warriors and more bureaucrats and internal policing.
>>3505
>>3507
Its high level international politics.
No, when the Cardassian-Federation War that O'Brien fought in prior to TNG occured, that whole area was heavily disputed, partially because Cardassia occupied Bajor and the Federation already had some settlers on the otherside of Bajor and were getting mixed up with Cardassian settlers.
I think the Federation-Cardassian treaty may have included a secret clause about the scheduled withdrawal from Bajor, leaving the station there and intact, in exchange for de facto Cardassian sovereignty over the disputed territories that would become the Maquis areas.
Some real bastardry there, but theoretically understandable if the Federation was concerned about appearing to be just another expansionist, imperialist power, that in fact WAS subverting and adjusting aliens cultures as necessary for future admission into the Federation, minimizing future threats and increasing its strength. Which it most likely WAS, but being obvious about it is detrimental, and would provoke a lot of bad blood from its neighbors if they became aware.
Its likely the Klingons hated them for this very reason, and its half the reason the Romulans are so paranoid. That bald Lt who became Maquis? He was right.
No, I'd assume the majority of Section 31 isn't mad supervillain shit, but just long term cultural subversion and adjustment to prepare potential enemies to become allies, working alongside or even as diplomats in some cases, and small nudge cloak and dagger, rumors and blackmail type shit.
Basically, NATO.
And the Maquis weren't a threat, in fact, they were a useful boon for dumping every officer who had rebellious thoughts against the party line out and letting them get killed. The complete lack of Federation assistance was intentional, as was putting someone like Sisko at DS9. who didn't think too largely and didn't question too much.
A bootlicker, content to defend the institutions of power. Janeway was similar, her combined with Voyager were meant to provide a permanent and overwhelming amount of Federation power to help crush and regulate the Maquis. I have no doubt she and Sisko would have made excellent friends.
Then woops, Voyager dissappears and is assumed dead.
tldr
The Federation saw Starfleet as an auxilary warfighting force, purely a backup, one with possible coup tendencies. They had decided on a longer, slower war waged with propaganda, treaties, and subversion, and quietly expanding throughout the quadrant, absorbing all of the smaller powers that they could with Starfleet as the guarantee.
They basically saw that, with the Klingons now standing down, and the Romulans remaining behind their borders, that there was no power in the vicinity that could threaten them, even with a much reduced military. But even reduced, idle militaries always get ideas…
But then the Borg introduced themselves….then the Dominion was encountered. And the Dominion. My god, with basically the equivalent of the Marshall Programand a partial deployment, they were outproducing and outpacing every major power in the Quadrant.
Sisko evens points out that had they waited and gave the Dominion/Cardassia time to recover, they would swamp them with ships and crush them.
So yeah. Starfleet did a NATO, only for two massively stronger rival factions to be discovered and got caught with their pants down.