I can’t find any evidence that the current acting FAA administrator was Senate confirmed. Is the Internet just being unreliable here?
I think your notion that career personnel have as much DC political clout as unconfirmed career officials is one of those things that sounds good if one is trying to win a debate, but is unlikely to represent the actual facts on the ground.
Political clout in DC isn't what runs organizations and gets the day to day business done. It's what plays well on the hill in pointless back and forth BS sessions that a totally ineffective congress likes to have, it probably helps to some extent in budgeting discussions, but it's more posturing than anything else in a lot of ways.
Anywhere you go in the military you'll find all the GOs who are in charge, and powerful, and senate confirmed, and all that good stuff, and they've got a Chief of Staff and an aide who actually run everything, and can continue to do so if their GO walks in front of a bus. It's no different in any huge bureaucracy -- sure, CEOs make decisions, but the day to day business doesn't stop if they don't answer the phone for a while. I would actually posit that if it did the whole organization is dysfunctional to the point of ineffectivity. But I'm being redundant in describing DC that way perhaps.
I think your notion that career personnel have as much DC political clout as unconfirmed career officials is one of those things that sounds good if one is trying to win a debate, but is unlikely to represent the actual facts on the ground.