Monitor which specific agencies and positions are reclassified, and track whether terminations follow political rather than performance criteria—this reveals whether the order enables merit-based reform or partisan purges.
This is substantive institutional capture (A=54) via personnel reclassification affecting 8,000 positions, enabling political purges of career civil servants. The mechanism directly threatens merit-based governance and creates precedent for broader Schedule F-style conversions. While generating moderate media attention (B=35), the governance harm clearly dominates—this is a structural change to federal workforce protections, not primarily a distraction play.