The time has come to take up the really important issue of the day - the development of Star Trek: Picard, which recently posted its third episode. A few thoughts below, but note there are some SPOILERS:
Overall, I think the show has progressed well, and is effectively building on the premise of Picard trying to uphold his principles without the support of Starfleet (and sometimes in opposition to it).
Along those lines, it was a good thing (for the story, not the characters!), that Picard's effort to get Starfleet to reinstate him failed miserably in Episode 2.
Starfleet and the Federation continue to look very bad in these two episodes, as in episode 1. The next few points are examples.
Starfleet seems deeply penetrated by Romulan agents. Either Starfleet is in cahoots with the secret Romulan conspiracy or it is incompetent (unable to prevent such a massive breach of security). Neither possibility speaks well for them.
Picard's ex-Starfleet friend Raffi (who was kicked out of Starfleet because of her support of Picard on the issue he resigned over), is living in poverty when he reconnects with her. You might think this is no big deal. But throughout the history Star Trek - especially in The Next Generation - we have had drummed into us the notion that the Federation has eliminated poverty, thanks to a combination of high technology and socialism. Perhaps she just enjoys the ascetic lifestyle. But she makes clear she is not happy and indeed says she would be "humiliated" to show Picard her ramshackle abode. Maybe the only people living in poverty are those on Starfleet's shitlist, who thereby render themselves unemployable in a government-dominated economy. If you don't anger the powers that be, maybe you get provided for better. But even that possibility doesn't speak well for the Federation's much-vaunted conquest of poverty.
Lots of Star Fleet veterans (Picard, Raffi, Capt. Rios) seem to have serious psychiatric problems. Yet Starfleet has been utterly ineffective in providing medical treatment - despite the Federation's system of free, supposedly high-quality universal health care. But maybe the problem is not lack of resources, but the very primitive nature Federation psychiatry, which seems to have regressed between now and the 24th century rather than progressed. Recall the incompetence of Counselor Troi and Ezri Dax (the counselor in the last season of Deep Space Nine). Their counseling advice ranged from the trivially obvious to the idiotically stupid.
The point of the Romulan/Borg plotline is far from entirely clear, at least to me. Hopefully, it will make more sense as time goes on.
By the end of episode 3, Picard has assembled a kind of motley crew of misfits - which is a fairly typical plotline for many shows (e.g. - Firefly). It will be interesting to see if the plot manages to avoid falling in to clicheism here.
Some of the above very negative portrayal of Star Fleet and the Federation might be explained by the writers' not thinking or caring about how this series links back to earlier Trek. But I doubt it. Patrick Stewart (who was heavily involved in the production, as well as playing the lead) surely cares about the continuity. So I think this aspect is (at least mostly) deliberate.
Both Romulans and many in the Federation have a deep suspicion and fear of AI lifeforms. An interesting question is whether this attitude is shared by the other majors powers in the Alpha Quadrant (Klingons, Cardassians, etc.). If not, one or more of the latter should have been able to steal a technological march on the competition by producing powerful AI.
