Sue Gordon was a name Americans were never supposed to know—the exemplar par excellence of the legion of career, nonpartisan officials who devote a lifetime to anonymous government service. A former Duke basketball player, Gordon dedicated her life to US intelligence. She rose through the ranks as part of the first generation of women to assume top roles, becoming a deputy director of the CIA, then deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and, most recently, serving for nearly three years in a role known as the principal deputy director of national intelligence—the nation’s No. 2 intelligence leader, and the top career intelligence official in the US government.

Well-respected, personable, and a quiet, behind-the-scenes leader, she is—hands down—one of the most thoughtful, smartest, and impressive people I’ve encountered in a dozen years of covering intelligence and national security. I’ve always felt more confident in America’s safety after listening to her talk.

Her forced departure by President Trump, announced last night, is only the latest shuffle of top national security posts under this administration. The pattern began in Trump’s first weeks in office, with the firing of the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, and the dismissal of the acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement the same night, followed within days by the firing of the chief of the Border Patrol.

Just last week, Trump announced the departure of Gordon’s boss, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and his intention to nominate representative John Ratcliffe in his place. A fiery, conspiracy theorist member of the Tea Party who lacks any meaningful national security experience, Ratcliffe didn’t even last a week in the public spotlight after reporters began picking apart the exaggerations of his résumé.

The writing had been on the wall that Gordon would not be allowed the chance to be acting DNI—as she is lawfully supposed to—because she was insufficiently Trumpian. With Gordon out, Trump has named the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Maguire, to take over as he continues to recruit a permanent intelligence chief.

It’s easy to view the musical chairs of the Trump administration—where staffers and nominees often seem to be plucked from a casting call for the bar in Star Wars rather than the prim, careful vetting that usually marked past administrations—as just more of the daily noise that consumes America in the Trump era, where entire news cycles get dominated by the arrest of a rapper in Sweden or the possible commutation of former Apprentice contestant-turned-convict Rod Blagojevich.

It’s easy, too, to shrug off how Trump has run roughshod over the normal succession practices of the US government, elevating the supremely unqualified Matt Whitaker from chief of staff to be acting attorney general, purging the deputy secretary of DHS and rewriting the rules to install Kevin McAleenan as the acting head of that department, bringing Ken Cuccinelli to oversee an immigration agency he knew the GOP official could never be confirmed to lead. Sue Gordon made clear her departure was involuntary, more purge than retirement: The note that accompanied her resignation letter read, “Mr. President — I offer this letter as an act of respect & patriotism, not preference. You should have your team. Godspeed, Sue.”

But such departures from regular order come at a cost. The policies and regulations that are supposed to guide succession and vacancies in the executive branch were developed to ensure that the most capable interim leaders would step into voids. The reason federal law says the principal deputy is supposed to become acting DNI in case of a vacancy is because lawmakers believed it was critical for the president to have reasoned, experienced advice. That meant Sue Gordon. Now, instead, the man in charge of coordinating the nation’s counterterrorism work will be pulled in new directions, overseeing the president’s daily intelligence briefing and the cat-herding role of the DNI.