Appointees serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. Firing one is a story, but ultimately not earth shattering.

The Census is something that is critically important to all sorts of "backend" processes in government. For example, your county probably apportions sales tax based on census figures.

It's sort of like the criticality of the employment and inflation statistics from the Department of Labor. Many processes assume that these tasks are completed correctly and with integrity.

When senior people like his who are cogs in the wheels of government resign at the prime of their careers, that means that something is broken or is about to be broken.

The census happens rarely and impacts politically important concepts like congressional districts. By undercutting the ability to have an accurate census, people can gain political advantage. Right now the Republican Party is basically propped up by older white men and women, but that is a rapidly diminishing demographic in the US. Pretty soon it will be dwarfed by other groups of people. By skewing the census, and the rarity at which they happen, Republicans can gain another 10 years or so of influence beyond what they should have (going by the numbers).

I'm not trying to minimize this seriously bad Census Bureau news, but I am trying to contextualize it.