User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 356: Tartarus Arc, Review./@comment-112.198.64.38-20131020082551/@comment-7418318-20131020112605

Seems I have to elaborate a bit:

Considering how the last two young people who were admitted into the council turned out, I could imagine that people might not be all that thrilled about a council made up entirely of young mages.

At least the "old senile farts" were overwhelmed by enemies, rather than becoming enemies themselves.

I wouldn't be surprised if many people thought that Siegrain and Ultear were corrupted by the power of their position, rather than being infiltraters who had bad intentions from the start.

That is, many people who are not part of the council itself and thus probably never were made privy to the fact that Siegrain was just Jellal's thought projection. That's likely something that's kept confidential within the higher ranks.