I'll go with evil, but not necessarily incompetent.

Getting his caste off the hook both financially and in terms of accountability was probably virtually impossible from the get-go. The fact that he tried to do something supremely difficult and failed does not necessarily indicate incompetence.

Of course, the whole thing was attempted with a cavalier disregard for the general welfare.

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

Yes. Failed visualizations-the mistaken and oversimple assumption that social/economic reality is a collection of at least more-or-less linear and quasi-separate processes, which conveniently justify-or define as inevitable- elite plunder.
 The world of human endeavor as machine--again, and again. Like B.F. Skinner's failed models of human psychological functioning.
Models that only seem to work because there is a positive feedback loop in the gears-- the more the elite believe the pronouncements of academia, which become their own bullshit, --the more people tend to play their role in the melodrama. And the more academicians analyze their own waste, and pronounce it human nature.

But when real crisis rolls around, the old narratives get trashed. To be replace by--what?
It's not yet happened. It will.

Grabbing what you can, as John Ruskin said, isn't any less wicked when you grab it with the power of your brains than with the power of your fists.

He no longer believes. He's crapping his pants. I think his testimony before congress was the reflexive defense of an arrogant and powerful man caught in water too deep for him.
His world is falling apart. But, he deserves to be recognized as at least aware of that. Most of the rest are still looking for a goat in any closet.

Grabbing what you can, as John Ruskin said, isn't any less wicked when you grab it with the power of your brains than with the power of your fists.