politics & government the officials, employees, and people who run government departments and offices, or similar officers and employees who manage the details of operating a large business:

politics & government disapproving Bureaucracy is also official rules that make it difficult to do things:

[ C ] plural bureaucracies MANAGEMENT a system for controlling or managing a country, company, or organization that is operated by officials who are employed to follow rules carefully:

[ U ] disapproving WORKPLACE complicated rules, processes, and written work that make it hard to get something done: