I think I get what Q is saying with the 1% thing re: NSA CIA etc.

Unethical program heads exploded beyond the purview of the agencies they were located in, to conceal stuff only nominally associated with the parent agency, but expanded into Special Access Programs staffed by people sworn to secrecy and doing things the parent agency has no idea about. Technically such people are no longer agents of that agency, only that crooked operator keeps one foot in agency, other in SAP, to maintain a command structure of sorts.