http://en.pons.com/translate/german-english/w...
2. Wasserkopf (überproportionales Gebilde):
Wasserkopf - sth that has been blown out of proportion - die Stadtverwaltung hatte einen enormen Wasserkopf entwickelt
the municipal authorities had developed a tremendously bloated bureaucracy

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/g...
... "bürokratischer Wasserkopf" (figurative) "top-heavy bureaucracy" ...

???

Oder:
The BBC is accused of/ criticised for representing a bloated machinery. (Passt das so?)

Edith:
Bzw. Mit brés Vorschlag -
It is criticised for its top-heavy bureaucracy.
?

Not machinery, but either top-heavy bureaucracy or bloated bureaucracy sounds idiomatic.

'Bloated' alone just means too big, too unwieldy, and 'top-heavy' alone just means distributed wrongly, too many people at the top of the pyramid, in upper management. So maybe you need both: a bloated, top-heavy bureaucracy; an administration that has become bloated and top-heavy, something like that.

The German image is interesting -- I don't think we use hydrocephalic in any sense except the literal medical one. Does the figurative sense, for the bureaucracy, also imply some loss of intelligence/cognitive function, as used to be the case with hydrocephalus? (I'm not even sure what the modern medical status of that condition is -- maybe it's more successfully treatable or preventable now.)

We do have the term hydra-headed, meaning having (or sprouting, growing) many different heads, like the monster from Greek mythology. That doesn't really seem close enough to fit here, but it might be sort of in a similar range of images.

Danke schön!
both: a bloated, top-heavy bureaucracy; an administration that has become bloated and top-heavy, something like that.

Gibt es vielleicht eine Möglichkeit, dies mit nur einem Adjektiv auszudrücken, welches die richtige Vorstellung transportiert? Im Moment wäre ich froh, wenn ich mit nur einem Adjektiv auskommen könnte.

Also, wer bietet nur eines?

Niemand?
Schade!

ed.