WT does all things for one of two reasons: Control of members or economic reasons. These two motivators are about the organizations survival, and that is what it is trying to do. Always start from there.
In this case, I think they realized they lost control of people with respect to reliably caring for assignments and the use of "qualified" men for those parts. So in a way this is about saving face and making things appear less of a malaise than they actually are. It fits more into the control camp, albeit indirectly.
d4g