Why do they use the term "czar" ?

Every time I hear someone in government referred to as a czar I immediately get that authoritarian cringe feel. John Kerry is supposedly our new Climate czar. Now he is given the job to help an old senile geriatric man dismantle the energy industry.

The 1st time I heard the term czar used frequently was back in the 1990s with Drug czar Barry McCaffrey when Clinton was president. How'd that work out? I might have heard it used occasionally when Bush was president but I remember it being used frequently during Obama's term.

I don't recall during that last 4 years of Trump's presidency hearing that term used. Now it seems that authoritarianism is all the rage. They use words and terms like this for a reason. Part of the new normal huh?