The Adam Smith Institute is, of course, an ultra free-market lobby group, but on some points, they certainly seem to be correct; DafT do tend to micro-manage the railways, and have done so now for at least 15 years. But they would like, in accordance with their free market thinking, for DafT not to be involved at all.
I would take issue with the first point in the summary at the top; I'm still not convinced that the rise in passenger numbers is exclusively down to privatisation. I thought that they were beginning to rise in the last few years of BR's existence