NASA sadly has a clear problem and has to care not to lose its face. Ares is the most controversial and disliked program ever (although I like the "stick" design). There is an upcoming gap and the planned retirement of the Shuttle also gets more and more controversial. It is an open secret that a manned Moon landing is anything but probable until 2020 (since AresV is and will remain a blueprint for years, if not forever), while Constellation does not even offer a long-term concept of going to the Moon in a useful way, less than ever is there any concept of going to Mars (beside the slogan). Although I like to see NASA back on the Moon, Constellation is nothing more than Apollo revised, Vol. 2, just something like Night Rider 2000 or CHIPs 99.
STS has caused NASA to lose its focus, if we talk about a real goal and going into deep space. STS prevents almost anything else of manned space flight. It almost eats up NASA for decades. What a waste of money, resources and time to prepare a second Shuttle launch because of a potential "rescue" mission. The retirement already should have taken place in the 1990's while being really focused of something new. I'd say that NASA today is in its most worst condition ever...