Why didnt Dave ever have more Authority with the staff at all?

All those things are true, but... short answer?

It kills the entire premise.

_____________________________________________________

My ratings:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur5531916/ratings

[deleted]

There was that one episode where Dave overhears the staff making fun of him, and it leads to Jimmy telling the staff he would fire Dave. They all object to that and sincerely tell how they respect Dave. Good episode.

You just have to be resigned-
You're crashing by design

I agree. The show also had too much goofing around. It should have shown people coming into work, quietly doing their job, and then going home.

-
Liberalism: Ideas so good, they're mandatory!

The funny thing is that in the pilot, it ends with Dave putting his foot down over all the nonsense going on and showing that he is a capable boss after all, now that he's dealt with all the silliness surrounding his first day on the job (mainly the fallout from Jimmy requiring him to go fire the current news director). From then on, Dave was less and less affective as the series went on, as he put his priority on establishing trust and friendship with the staff over his management duties. Not that establishing trust and a friendly working relationship is a bad thing, except when it keeps you from being an effective boss. It got in the way enough that by the time he lost his position to Lisa, he didn't want it back when he had the chance. By that time, he was worrying about things like that security door- and if he had threatened to fire people who messed with the door, he would have avoided the nonsense that went on in that episode.