“She was decent and for the most part fair to work with behind the scenes,” a White House reporter told me. “She behaved publicly in a way that earned her no laurels or credibility, but kept her in good stead with the president and with her colleagues. Like everyone, she’s complicated. The chances that things get better without Sarah are slim.”

Several others independently offered nearly identical versions of the following phrase: “I just don’t think it matters.”

“I’m not expecting it to be worse than Sarah,” one of them told me. “I don’t expect a reset either. I expect nothing to change. It moves me not one bit in either direction. It matters for how the world will view his administration, but I don’t think it matters in terms of how we are able to do our jobs.” Another said, “My honest view is that they could put anyone in there and it wouldn’t make any difference. Unless they were just a massive leaker, which would be awesome.” After all, this person added, the tightly controlled and highly choreographed press strategies of past administrations didn’t necessarily make for better White House journalism. “I wouldn’t want this place to become more functional. I like it to be dysfunctional because that’s where all the stories and the leaks are. I like it when it’s a total crapshoot and people are just scrapping around.”