"The Army is profoundly affected by OSD leadership and behavior. From the day he is a lieutenant the typical Army officer learn to interpret and accord with duly invested higher authority… Professor Reis (The Management of Defense, John Hopkins Press, 1964) has carefully researched the adversary system between the Services and OSD… The now long drawn out encounter between the two cultures has been detrimental to the Army process of materiel acquisition from a strong but indirect cause...
“OSD is now hydra-headed. Questions pour out of these many heads. The questions can overlap, or deal with the same issues. They appear not to be coordinated at OSD level. The result is tri-service organizational entropy ("an amount of energy in a system not available for doing work") gain.”The April 1974 report argues that Army staff had grown too large because of OSD intrusion. The report sought to reduce Army Staff, which due to OSD questions was forced to “interdict the materiel acquisition process at all levels and at some length.”
Also, Professor Reis' book cited above is highly recommended.
Below is a nice chart that shows how the Army Program Manager of the Heavy Lift Helicopter had to provide 14 briefings to high level offices in 31 work days (including Christmas-New Year's week) that required five separate trips from St. Louis to D.C.:
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