If I understood well, Americans don't have such bad feelings toward the word "bureaucracy" and its derivatives. In Europe it is different. When I tell to Gerard that he is better bureaucrat than me, he feels offended; although I thought about specific virtues, not defects; and although I've defined myself a number of times as a Wikimedia bureaucrat.
That difference lays probably in 300 years of different developments of societies. Franz Kafka wasn't living in 18th century, but in 20th. Horrors of bureaucracies wasn't so obvious in 18th century because it is hard to say that any kind of sensible bureaucracy existed then. Arbitrariness of feudatories and rulers was much bigger problem. And at least in the case of bureaucracy, Americans had much more luck.
As you could see I am usually use the "American" meaning of the word "bureaucracy" and its derivatives. Complex societies can't exist without more or less good bureaucracies. Unlike many of my friends, I appreciate good formal bureaucracy. This is the minimum and it is much better to deal with formal bureaucracy than with informal relations. As a user of [social] institutions you can count on formal bureaucracy, while it is not possible with informal relations.
However, to be effective, bureaucracy has to be managed. This is particularly true for very complex bureaucracies, and Wikimedia is already a very complex bureaucracy. And it (bureaucracy) is not managed well.
The main problem with not well managed bureaucracies are not well defined responsibilities. In other words, it is not possible to say that one person or one group is responsible for some malfunctioning. It is the product of the right decisions at the lower level of complexity, which creates malfunctioning at the higher level of complexity.
That means that I am not blaming anyone particularly, but that we have increasing number of the problems of that type; which means that all of us have to think how not to make such mistakes.
Last couple of months I am not uploading images to Commons as I would like to do. Not counting that I block all of my upload link for ten or more minutes per one high resolution photo, it is very painful process even for 20k logo.
Today I am working from my netbook. It is not so easy to find the right button and the screen is small. I wanted to upload 20k logo for new Wikipedia edition (in Banjar) [1]. I wanted to find the right copyright tag (logo is trademark of WMF). So, I clicked on "Permissions" link, instead on question mark. When I went back all of the form was blanked.
Note that I did that because I didn't want to be arrogant bureaucrat. People who want that project have already created SVG logo and I didn't want to insist that they have to create PNG derivative; I can do that, it should be easier.
So, I wanted to do that as I treat that as my responsibility. I filled the form once again and I had to spend next ~15 minutes while trying to upload the 20k logo: license is not correct, author is not correct, this is not correct, that is not correct. And I am using Commons from the time when it started to exist.
There is no way that I would be willing to upload any file on Commons because I would like to do it; just if I have to do it.
The logical question is, of course, have I complained about it? This problem exists for a year or so. And I am sure that I am not the only person who complained about it in various ways.
The first step in solving the problem is to ask one of the responsible persons to fix it. So, maybe a year ago, I've asked that person. He told me to fill the bug. No, I am not willing to fill the bug. (Note that I am doing that regularly as a LangCom member.)
There are three types of [technical] bugs in process: (1) mostly, nothing has been done; (2) my bug is redundant, someone is working [or not] on this issue already (in this case for a year or so); (3) if I am lucky and someone responds to the initial bug request, I would have to spend hours in defining, explaining etc.
And I just wanted to upload a photo or logo. It should last for 5-15 minutes, depending on my upload speed. Not hours in explaining what the problem is.
And if I have to spend hours every time when I see a problem, I think that it is much more reasonable to spend hours in talking about the problem in general.
This particular problem has and doesn't have responsible persons or groups. The problem lays somewhere between Commons community and WMF tech staff. And the point is that any of those groups could make our life easier, while I suppose that all of them think that it is not their problem, but the problem for which another group is responsible.
Both of the groups made right decisions at the lower level of complexity. The first one wanted to be sure that there are a lot of explanations, the second has put upload form with more useful features. However, the final product is a nightmare from the point of the basic usability: you can't upload file effectively, which is the main purpose of the upload form (and Commons).
I am sure that there are a lot of similar problems all over Wikimedia projects. Something has to be done generally. And once again, I don't know who should do that. Who should lead the synchronization process between various Wikimedia groups? Or, who should delegate that problem to a particular person or group?
[1] - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lambang_Wikipidia_Bahasa_Banjar.png