The engineering dept and the real engineers within it, are generally very good and extremely reliable. However as with any large organization, the system occasionally puts admin type wallahs in positions where they should have operational staff.
If those individuals stayed in their office and counted paper clips like they're trained to, then that's fine. However, similar to flight ops, where we had a zoologist in the main position, they occasionally start meddling in operational aspects over which they have no real practical idea, as they've never worked in the areas they are now meddling with.
Small wonder they have little respect from their underlings.