forget who said that d.c. is only known vessel to leak from the top, stuff that gets uncovered is almost always because someone *high* in government - be s/he dissident, malcontent, servant, president - wants stuff uncovered...
recall a survey some years ago of senior federal officials that found percentage approaching 50% had deliberately leaked information, by no means was all of this leaking by disgruntled sort, fair number stated that it was part of their job...
leaks have been integral to u.s policy establishment since early days of the republic (jefferson was notorious leaker), unfortunately, there is too little discretion made between leaks and, well, lies...
while vietnam/watergate info tended to be accurate, much ado was made of innuendo during clinton-era scandals, basic facts in latter were scarce (on other hand, publicly-known features of clinton's governing ought to have provoked impeachment proceedings)...
stephen hess - who served in eisenhower and nixon administrations - concluded that leaks rarely clarify situations or do any damage to government, they may or may not serve public good/interest, he does call certain dissident leakers 'anti- presidential' in their capacity to disrupt executive's control of timing and context of policymaking... mh