Institutions rarely announce their own decline.
They document around it.
When correction is still possible, friction is tolerated. Objections are raised. Decisions stall. Authority is tested. None of this feels efficient, but it keeps systems responsive.
When correction becomes expensive – politically, legally, reputationally – the behavior changes.
Problems are no longer confronted directly. They are routed. Committees form. Language tightens. Processes appear where judgment once sat. Each response is technically appropriate. Collectively, they replace correction with management.
This is not incompetence.
It is adaptation.
The institution learns how to continue without resolving what it can no longer afford to resolve. What matters shifts from function to defensibility. From whether something works to whether it can survive review.
At this stage, dissent becomes unproductive. Not because it is wrong, but because it increases exposure. Silence returns, not as avoidance, but as alignment with the new priority.
The institution does not collapse immediately.
It persists.
By the time failure becomes visible, the internal decision has already been made. Correction was weighed, found too costly, and quietly set aside. Everything that followed was procedural.
The record will suggest continuity.
The outcome will suggest otherwise.
Centreline Clarity 