In Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic, Stephen Skowronek, John A. Dearborn, and Desmond King interrogate the conflict between "the unitary executive" and the "Deep State" to uncover basic issues of governance in modern America. Fundamental concepts that have shaped the American presidency for decades: unitary executive theory and the deep state. Ingrained in the government's constitutional design and exacerbated by recent developments, this conflict is, they
are, likely to bedevil American governance going forward.