First, these attacks are exceptionally personal. The anonymous op-ed and the comments to Woodward aim to undermine the very person of the president. Criticism by former staffers is hardly new, but most often it centers on how other aides failed to help the president make better decisions. In 1979, James Fallows wrote an essay critiquing the presidency of his former boss, Jimmy Carter — but made clear that “With his moral virtues and his intellectual skills, [Carter] is perhaps as admirable a human being as has ever held the job.”

By contrast, while Trump is given credit for some policy achievements, he is described as “petty and ineffective,” “erratic,” “ill-informed,” prone to “repetitive rants.” Other Trump officials’ insults are more biting still. On Thursday, Axios quoted other Trump officials confirming the picture “Anonymous” painted — which is wholly consistent with Bob Woodward’s new book, and Omarosa Manigault Newman’s, and Michael Wolff’s. Wolff’s account prompted President Trump to kick off January 2018 by declaring himself a “very stable genius.” Many of the president’s men, and women, have a different assessment — and aren’t shy about saying so. As Sen. Ben Sasse (R.-Neb.) said Thursday about the op-ed, “It’s just so similar to what so many of us hear from senior people around the White House, you know, three times a week.”

All this hurts the president’s “professional reputation” — which Richard Neustadt’s classic book “Presidential Power” argued was one of the key resources presidents have for shaping policy.