The slow unmaking of a tax institution

A system can survive change, but it struggles to survive forgetfulness.

Institutions rarely collapse in one dramatic moment. They thin out. They lose memory. Their edges blur until the work continues out of habit more than design. When a structure has been in place for nearly a century, its disappearance is less a policy choice and more a confession about priorities.

The dissolution of the Justice Department’s Tax Division fits that pattern.

It appears the government reached a point where the form of the thing mattered more than its function, and letting the form go became easier than sustaining it.

What happened?

The Justice Department formally eliminated its standalone Tax Division on November 30. All civil tax litigation now sits inside a new branch of the Civil Division. All criminal tax enforcement was transferred to the Criminal Division.

The move followed months of staff departures. Many attorneys left or were reassigned during a broader push to shrink the federal workforce. By late summer, the division had lost over a third of its career managers. Roug…