WASHINGTON – America’s professional diplomats feel demoralised and ignored, with fully 98 per cent saying in a new survey that workplace morale has fallen since the Trump administration took over in January.

The findings are contained in a forthcoming report from the Foreign Service Association of America, or AFSA, that warns that “America’s diplomatic capacity is being decimated from within” as seasoned diplomats are laid off or choose to leave government.

“The Foreign Service is in crisis,” said Mr John Dinkelman, the association’s president. “Damage is being done to America’s diplomatic service that we will be paying for for decades to come.”

The report, which will be officially released on Dec 3, paints a grim portrait of the diplomatic corps that is consistent with countless anecdotal complaints from both Foreign Service officers, trained professionals who work in embassies and consulates abroad, and the civil servants who mainly staff the State Department’s headquarters in Washington.

Most of the survey’s more than 2,100 respondents said they were managing tighter budgets and greater workloads amid the Trump administration’s spending cuts, including drastic reductions in US foreign aid.

Eighty-six per cent said it had become harder to carry out US foreign policy. Just 1 per cent reported an improvement.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Most likely fuelling the dissatisfaction is a sense among current and former US officials that, under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the department has become more political and less relevant. Although Mr Rubio initially assured department workers that he valued their expertise and wanted the department to play a greater role in foreign policy, numerous officials insist the opposite has happened.

Diplomats sense that their input is not welcome, especially if it diverges from President Donald Trump’s views. They have watched from the sidelines as much of America’s most sensitive diplomac...