Hannah Rosen

That's after the break.

I'm Anne Applebaum.

Over the past year, as I watched Donald Trump demand unprecedented new powers, I wondered, don't he and his team fear that these same powers could one day be used by a different administration and a different president to achieve very different goals?

Well, maybe they are afraid.

And maybe that's why they're using their new tools to change our institutions, even to alter the playing field in advance of midterm elections later this year, to make sure their opponents can't win.

We could win, but we are very, very, very likely to lose if we keep treating this as business as usual.

reporting on the sweeping changes unfolding in our country and preparing you to think about what might happen next.

The new season of Autocracy in America, available now.

After the Civil War, the federal government's footprint expanded, and the civil service began to change.

Some of that was thanks to universities.

They were shifting from being more or less finishing schools for aristocrats to places that produce scientists, engineers, and other professionals.

And this expertise made its way to D.C.

Soldner exemplifies the federal government in its most elemental form.

She spent years regulating products that Americans use and consume every day.

When you think of regulations, you think of someone behind a desk in D.C.

But that is the wrong image for Soldner and her work.

In April, Paula accepted the Trump administration's offer of early retirement.

Many of her colleagues did the same.

Frank, you talked about the early evolution of the federal workforce after the Civil War, turning away from the patronage system, hiring experts, regulating drugs and keeping things safe.

So that was the beginning of the modern federal government.