Every time I think about Barr now I remember that line from V for Vendetta when V is telling the story of the regime's rise to power:
"It is at this point in our story that along comes a spider." There really is a noticeable point in the last 4 years where the Trump administration went from chaos to actually accomplishing the evil deeds that it was trying to accomplish, and Barr joining the team seems like that was it. It took Trump 1/2 his term to get the crew he needed, and they are effective