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For one thing, suspicion and distrust continue to grow between Khomeini's dominant Revolutionary Council and the upstaged government, which Premier Mehdi Bazargan complained had already been reduced to "a knife without a blade." For another, many trained technicians who are charged with managing the day-to-day affairs of the troubled country are becoming increasingly disaffected with the meddlesome clergy. "One of these days, when there is a nationwide power failure, we shall ask the mullahs to fix the grid," says one electrical engineer sarcastically.
More important still, some senior civil servants fear that with unemployment estimated at 20% and inflation reaching 60%, economic discontent could eventually provoke serious unrest in the highly politicized labor force of 11 million. "Despite their own strong religious attachment, the millions of low-income Iranians who gave the revolution most its martyrs expect a better life as well," one official observed. "There is bound to be trouble if it does not materialize."