Many of the institutional innovations that would give birth to the modern Irish economy emerged over the course of the 1950s. The bureaucracy of the time guarded its independence jealously. This is in sharp contrast to the situation that prevailed in the build-up to the present crisis, as revealed by recent reports into the performance of the Central Bank, the Financial Regulator and the Department of Finance. These reports document the deference and diffidence of the modern bureaucracy and its vulnerability to ‘groupthink’.