Byzantine
Etymology
From the Byzantine Empire, the eastern continuation of Rome centered on Constantinople (originally the city of Byzantium). Its court became a byword in the West for elaborate ceremony, labyrinthine administration, and palace intrigue. By the nineteenth century the lowercase adjective had detached from the empire to describe anything similarly convoluted and underhanded.
adjective · /BIZ-un-teen/
Excessively complicated, intricate, and often devious in structure or dealings.
What it names
The maddening complexity of a system so tangled with rules, factions, and hidden maneuvering that no one can see through it — the word to use for baffling bureaucracy or scheming politics.
Example
Getting the permit meant navigating a byzantine approval process spread across four departments that never spoke to each other.
Related idea
Labyrinthine stresses sheer intricacy and the ease of getting lost; byzantine adds a whiff of intrigue and deliberate obfuscation.