Take a deep breath. Good, you were able to vent.
Some of what you say is true. We are talking a federal bureaucracy and the people who are granted the discretion to exempt you from the rules do cover their rears, because they worked long and hard to get those positions and one GermanWings like incident, and they are not only a mort as far as federal career goes, they are probably unemployable in any job requiring malpractice insurance, and that’s likely the case irregardless of whether they actually effed up, or just got blamed for something totally unrelated.
Without knowing your specific problem, none of us can tell you how realistic (or unrealistic) your expectations are. Clearly you’ve tripped a wire. That may be because you have a problem that is simply NEVER going to get a Special Issuance, like you having bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. That’s not your fault, but likewise not theirs either, and they simply aren’t going to approve you.
Of course just because you were DIAGNOSED with those conditions, doesn’t necessarily mean you even have them. Local MDs toss around diagnoses pretty loosely (look how many kids are diagnosed with ADD, H€||, look how many people are overprescribed OxyContin). Just because it’s in the record doesn’t necessarily make it real, and it takes time to sort these things out. And yes, it often takes a knowledgeable advocate to research the history and make the argument, because the FAA simply doesn’t Have enough physical standards people to sleuth out and get that information for everyone desiring a Special Issuance and every minute they spend on you backs up the next guy that much further.
That’s simply the reality.