I disagree. In the U.S., "deep state" is a deliberate reframing of the permanent bureaucracy to suggest that there's a faction of civil servants that make up a clandestine network working behind the scenes to manipulate or subvert democracy for their own ends without any accountability.

It's not a new idea, but the use in the U.S. is pretty new, and has seen seen a resurgence in popularity since Trump — a populist whose campaign was partly based on the premise of a deep state — was elected, partly in thanks to books like "Killing the Deep state" [1].

There have existed, and there still exist, "true" deep state systems, such as the intelligence services and FSB (and related obligarch axis) in Russia, that we should be wary of. Co-opting the phrase to refer to any permanent bureaucratic structure as a deep state is needlessly reductive (and historically incorrect), and also normalizes something we should consider a dangerous aberration.

It is a conspiracy theory, but it's taken very seriously by the people who use it.

I recommend this [2] video for some historians' perspective.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Deep-State-Fight-President/dp...

[2] https://www.c-span.org/video/?461976-2/deep-state-american-h...