For decades, government watchdogs and budget oversight experts have been trying to get someone — anyone — to listen to them about the need to root out waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending, frustrated that their calls for systemic change were going unheard by Washington.

Many were cautiously optimistic when President Donald Trump empowered billionaire Elon Musk to bring improper spending under control and to modernize outrageously outdated federal payments systems.

But in interviews with half a dozen of these watchdogs, most said this isn’t what they had in mind.

The breakneck upheaval of federal agencies spearheaded by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has needlessly politicized the issue and could make it harder to enact the real changes needed to root out improper spending, five good-government experts said.

“Elon Musk is saying we’ve got shocking amounts of fraud, and you’re right, we do. No one’s really cared until now,” said fraud prevention expert Linda Miller, a former senior staff member for Congress’ independent Government Accountability Office during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.