I hesitate to post this because of the baloney that's gonna come back at me, but you're exactly right.
There was no sounding board, no accountability, no mentorship, no structure, nothing. No matter how good someone is at whatever they do, they need to have someone to hold them accountable, grow, have structure, and support. Prior to Alberts, it was a free for all with the inmates fully in charge of the asylum. We saw how that turned out.
The turnaround isn't a coincidence. The tragedy is how amazing of a spot we would be in if there had been a structure in place on day 1 of the Frost regime that is in place now.