When Kelly first came over to run the Trump team there was near-unanimous expectation that he’d be the adult in the room. And indeed the chain of command got more efficient and some problem employees were evicted. However, there’s a limit to how long you can live off your laurels for firing Omarosa and The Mooch.

Kelly did nothing about the fact that the White House is loud and mean and generally unfathomable. Except make things even worse. This, after all, is the guy who’s intervened whenever Donald Trump is in his expansive give-me-an-immigration-bill-to-sign phase, and pushed him over to Haiti-is-a-shithole territory.

“It almost makes you nostalgic for Reince Priebus. Never thought I’d say that,” mused Chris Whipple, the author of “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.”

When Kelly was head of the Department of Homeland Security, many Democrats liked him — even though he once said his congressional critics should either change the laws or “shut up.” He seemed smart, and he knew stuff. They tended to blame anything insane that was happening on Trump. But now it’s becoming clear that Kelly is the point man on immigration insecurity, heading off the president’s impulses for outreach, no matter how fleeting.

A lot of his defenders are fading away. Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta always used to be supportive, since Kelly was once his military aide. No more. The best Panetta could do in a phone interview was to suggest the new, bad version of his old friend might be the product of too much time spent with his current boss. “On the other hand,” he added, “who the hell knows?”