In the final episode of a three-part series on how agencies actually produce outcomes, Gwen and Marc trace the mechanisms that did the work — all of them upstream of the hearing room and mostly invisible from outside:

• Case completion targets that measure speed but not thoroughness — and a Seventh Circuit concurrence warning that even well-intentioned production pressure "can alter the essential function of adjudication"
• Quality review rubrics that aren't published, shift with administrations, and can't be appealed — but feed into performance evaluations that have real career consequences
• Social Security Rulings that describe themselves as not having "the force and effect of law" and in the same sentence say they are "binding on all components" — binding policy issued without notice and comment
• The 1984 case that ...