USAID Media has tracked many explanations for what caused USAID’s shutdown, including critiques of USAID’s work by its own staff. But this is one of many episodes that require a simpler, sadder explanation. USAID's path was dependent on a few powerful and ill-informed people acting with carelessness, indifference to human consequences, and disregard for the law. Elon Musk and Jeremy Lewin drove it while others looked away.