The medium is not the message.  As in any medium, there is good design and bad design in PowerPoint. To demonstrate this, I have redrawn the basic structure of the justifiably maligned Afghan Powerpoint slide (at bottom of page) using a layered, architected approach (see below). Here, the nature of the system and its many interdependencies can be more readily seen. Images have been added to humanize the perspective provided. Additional detail can be easily overlaid a section at a time, once the reader sees the macro system at work.

Take-away:  All systems, simple or complex, are composed of layers of functions within a predictable order (the technical term is a "functional hierarchy"). Lower layers support upper layers with feedback loops from higher to lower layers. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and food chains are good examples of functional hierarchies. When visualizing a system, structuring the diagram based on these layers makes the interdependencies much simpler and more obvious to the reader. Find out more by clicking on links to other examples on our home page.