I'd say it's more of a fault of lack of laws and regulations around keeping track of classified documents. There should be a database with the location of all such documents.
There are probably billions of classified documents. If you use any piece of classified information in a document (PowerPoint presentation, spreadsheet, Word document, email, map, image, etc.) the whole thing is now classified. Almost every piece of information when you're in a combat zone is classified at least at the Secret level. Some of it is ridiculous, some of it really does need to be kept Secret. Things get printed, information is typed back into another system or another format, people get told things - there is no feasible way to keep track of it with technology.
That doesn't even consider the problem of aggregation - that is if you combine enough unclassified information the result is now classified. For instance, if you reported the number of tanks in a single company (typically 14) that were operational that's not classified. But if you aggregated that with the number of tanks that were operational across dozens of companies all over Europe - that would now be classified.
Quite frankly it can be very difficult to keep track of which information in your head is now classified or unclassified - especially since so much classified information is not really that secret. I was sitting in a SCIF when the Boston Bombing occurred. The best information was coming from someone who had both unclassified and classified systems (basically two different computers on two different networks) manually retyping reports from the media (unclassified) on to a classified system. Most information that's classified - even at the Top-Secret level is quite underwhelming when you compare it to what's shown in movies and TV. But everyone who is granted access to that information has to undergo initial training, and refresher training, and sign multiple documents where it is made very explicit what the rules are. Of course, those rules only apply to the little people. Rise high enough in government and it's clear that a slap on the wrist is all you'll ever receive.
Of course over-classification is a problem. But nothing you brought up (except maybe some combat documents) seems all that insurmountable. If anything, better rules and regulations might make some people think twice before classifying something. Do they really need to label something classified if they have to go through the system of recording it as classified?
Things get classified all the time because someone just slaps that label on there, but doesn't hold any further responsibility to the protection or tracking of that information.
This is the kind of stuff that is out of the hands of 99.999% of people handling classified information. Everybody else has to follow lengthy guides of what is and isn't classified - and that can change for every individual program or project. The bottom line is that if you copy something that is classified - a single sentence, image, map, video, etc. then the resulting product now has that level of classification. In practice this means that every line or page in a classified document will be marked [.U] [.S] [TS] etc. or with additional caveats like [S/NOFORN] which means Secret/No Foreign Disclosure, or [S/REL TO FVEY] which means Secret/Release to Five Eyes nations only (US/UK/CAN/AUS/NZ). (I had to add periods so it wouldn't try to underline or strikethrough).
People who work with this stuff at lower levels take it very seriously. But once you get to a high enough level it is very much a matter of
"rule for thee, but not for me". We're never going to hear about how someone below the level of a cabinet secretary, member of Congress, 4 Star General, etc. mishandled classified information. The law actually applies to those people. They'll lose their security clearance, maybe even face jail time, and it will never make it on to the national news.
It's exactly because something like a Powerpoint can include classified info that we should absolutely be doing better to keep track of where that information goes. Once the powerpoint is over, did it go on a thumbdrive? Who was it emailed to? Was an unencrypted version of the document sent?
No thumb drives allowed. Especially not for classified networks. Everything has to be copied to a CD or transferred over a network.
I had to prepare and brief a presentation every week when I was deployed. We had to do it on the classified network since occasionally we would discuss the portion of the mission that was Secret and we were talking to people on another continent. Our mission was basically 5 or 6 lines and the last one was the only classified portion. 99% of what we discussed and basically all the information on the slides was unclassified, but because it might contain Secret information that slide deck had to live on the classified network. There is no way to just delete the portion that's classified and email an unclassified version - that would be a huge gaping security hole. Technically it can be done, but it has to go through a specially designated person to actually downgrade it and transfer it over to an unclassified network. There might be one person who has that access in an organization with hundreds or thousands of people.
There are a thousand questions about real classified information that we simply don't have and can't answer today. If classified documents truly matter to our national security, then we absolutely should start taking it more seriously. And we have the technology now to do it.
This is the government we're talking about. And not just a single agency, but almost every agency in the Executive branch as well as the Legislative and Judicial branch. DoD, CIA, NSA, NRO, State, Treasury, FBI, ATF, DEA, Congress, the White House, etc. So, implementing that technology will cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, require 5-10 years to be implemented and then probably get cancelled partway through - while still awarding performance bonuses to all the contractors involved. If it does get implemented, the millions of people who are supposed to use it won't actually use it or find ways around it because that's how they've always done it and besides - they're going to retire in a few years anyways.
I've spent almost 20 years in the Army, and I spent a few years as a DoD civilian. I'm beyond pessimistic about the ability of the federal government to accomplish things in a timely or cost-effective manner, especially when it comes to technology or any other system that is used by literally millions of people.
