Tillerson faces the unfortunate fate of overseeing a critical Federal function which has fallen into disfavor by the Administration it serves. The State Department has been intentionally unmanned and starved for resources, by a largely inept Administration which holds its work in low esteem, preferring bluster and blunder as the means for governing America's relationships with other nations. That approach does not bide well for building those relationships as well as assuring US future leadership role in world affairs, leaving us as a impaired superpower.