jargon, architecture A term describing any system that has
so many labyrinthine internal interconnections that it would
be impossible to simplify by separation into loosely coupled
or linked components.
The city of Byzantium, later renamed Constantinople and then
Istanbul, and the Byzantine Empire were vitiated by a
bureaucratic overelaboration bordering on lunacy: quadruple
banked agencies, dozens or even scores of superfluous levels
and officials with high flown titles unrelated to their actual
function, if any.
Access to the Emperor and his council was controlled by
powerful and inscrutable eunuchs and by rival sports factions.
[Edward Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"].
(1999-01-15)