It has for me.<p>When the Snowden revelations first came out, as an engineer, I was in awe of the NSA&#x27;s capabilities.<p>But slowly, the awe has reduced to &quot;meh, they&#x27;re just another inept government agency&quot; levels. If they were so capable, how does one explain the rise of groups like ISIS since 2003? It&#x27;s hard to believe such a well trained well financed group can rise and take over vast territories without emails, IMs and mobile calls.