The Citadel Council is not evil. This is important to understand, because it makes their behaviour significantly more frustrating.
They are administrators. Optimised for a galaxy that does not contain Reapers. Everything about how the Council functions — deliberation, Spectres, jurisdictional boundaries — was designed for a universe where the biggest threats can be handled through patience and diplomacy.
In Mass Effect 1: hard evidence that Saren has gone rogue. Eyewitness accounts. Recordings. The Council strips his Spectre status, which is correct, then does as little as possible for the rest of the game. When Sovereign is stopped, they quietly relabel the event a “geth attack.” No accountability. No acknowledgement.
In Mass Effect 2: entire human colonies are being harvested. Ships, personnel, everyone. The Council’s position is that this falls outside their jurisdiction.
By Mass Effect 3, the Reapers have arrived in force and the harvest is underway across the galaxy. Council meetings are still happening. Resource allocation arguments are still happening. The Salarian Dalatrass is running a backroom genetic politics play while Earth is being taken apart.
The writing does this deliberately. Institutional inertia is a real phenomenon. Organisations built to manage stable situations are genuinely poorly shaped for existential threats outside their normal parameters. The Council is not unintelligent — they are wrong-shaped for the problem they are facing.
This does not make it any less infuriating across three games. Interestingly, the frustration does not diminish on replays. If anything, knowing what is coming makes it worse.
That is probably intentional. It never stops working.