I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Malcolm Rutherford has done some of the research to which you refer re: the history and historical contribution of the NBER, specifically with respect to the Insitutionalist early history of the NBER:

 "Who's Afraid of Arthur Burns?" The NBER and the Foundations. Journal of the History of Economic Thought 27 (June): 109-139.

Admittedly, Rutherford's work is focused more on the early beginnings of the NBER, not the last 25 years, but I believe that he might have a few stories he could share.  He gave a very interesting seminar at Colorado State University ~2002 regarding this subject with lots of anecdotes.

Kace Chalmers