Yea, he was bugged pretty much from the very beginning of his tenure as boss. That was mostly due to Nicky Scarfo, they had already planned to bug guys, Stanfa wasnt the intended target, but they saw all these guys always entering Avena's law offices and wanted to know what was going on. However him being named boss, isnt what made Philly dysfunctional. And King is partly correct, according to Anastasia, Stanfa was on the verge of winning the war. After the highway attempt on Stanfa, in which his son was hit in the face, the Merlino camp got spooked and began to hunker down. They weren't collecting there usual street tax from those they were extorting, they weren't frequenting their normal hangout spots. And they'd gotten word that Stanfa had turned into a completely different animal after that attempt. Stanfa realized this and knew the tide was changing in his favor. He began to then collect street tax and began taking over the Merlino factions street businesses. However he didn't know Battaglia & Bellochi had already been giving info to the feds, as well as Previte. He stopped meeting at Avenas offices, so he was clearly tipped off that the place was bugged, but by then it was already too late, Veasey flipping was the straw that broke the camels back. The feds made their move and locked everyone up and Stanfa was a goner. But Merlino and his guys survived that ordeal by the skin of their teeth. Like people say Merlino is so lucky its uncanny, thats just another reason why. Frank Baldino was the last casualty of that war, and he was a Merlino guy. So he was able to fight off Merlino and his boys, but his foundation was never stable enough for him to last for a large amount of time after he'd won. His nucleus was weak.