Director of the National Security Agency, General Keith Alexander, will step down from his post in the coming months, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

Alexander, who as head of the NSA has guided the agency’s controversial dragnet spying programs in recent years, has formalized plans to leave by next April at the latest, Reuters reports Thursday.

Likewise, Alexander’s deputy, John Inglis, is due to retire by the end of the year, according to U.S. officials.

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“This has nothing to do with media leaks,” NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines told Reuters. “The decision for his retirement was made prior; an agreement was made with the (Secretary of Defense) and the Chairman for one more year – to March 2014.”

That may or may not be so, according to observers, but the real issue is whether or not either official—or anyone ever—will be held accountable for the controversial behavior of the spy agency in recent years.

As chief of the nation’s largest and most secretive intelligence agency—sometimes referred to as the “No Such Agency”— Alexander had largely escaped media attention until this year’s explosive revelations made possible by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The leaked details of numerous NSA programs put Alexander—and the testimony he offered in front of a series of public congressional hearings—at the center of the global media debate about the legally suspect surveillance operations of the U.S. government.

Mike Masnick, editor at TechDirt, concedes that the departures were likely planned, but doesn’t necessarily think that’s a good thing.

That Alexander and Inglis weren’t forced out by the Snowden revelations, Masnick says, “is unfortunate, as it really does seem like there should be some punishment for the widespread excesses and abuses that have been revealed by Snowden.”

Despite widespread anger over the revelations that the NSA has been spying on innocent people in the U.S. and around the world, Alexander has continuously defended the NSA’s tactics.