The problem is he hired a lot of douchebags from the swamp. He didn't have any other choice
That was a big part of it. At the top level, he had to pick people that could survive the Senate confirmation process. That means someone who is friendly to the established order.
In the meantime, he has "acting" directors of the agencies who are carryovers from previous administrations. Obama was smart to load the agencies down 3 or 4 layers with his own political operatives, because there was a replacement in waiting when the top position went open. That's pretty important considering the criminality that took place.
Trump inherited an administrative State that actively opposed him, and his cabinet was not very effective at getting his policies implemented or enforced. Tillerson spent more time representing the State Dept. to Trump, than he did telling the people at State what the new policies would be, and to get after it.
The DOJ and intelligence community continued to pursue him over the phony Russia narrative.
I think Barr really did want to clean up the FBI, but in the end he just punted. So I guess my response to him would be that
he didn't have the temperament to do what was needed to restore the reputation of the FBI, so his criticism of Trump I will just ignore, thank you very much.