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These types of documents (the directives for continuity) have been around since the Cold War in case of a Russian attack etc. - the difference in this one that has a lot of scholars and even some at the NIE (a very conservative think tank) a little upset is that it assigns the power of coordination of a constitutional government to the president to ensuer the separation of powers - the problem is that by assigning one of the three wings as the overall coordinator you have already taken away the separation of powers act - which is why in the past that responsibility has always been with the head of FEMA.
The major reason it is a problem if you follow the separation of powers issue is that the president has also recently designated himself the head of the military without oversight of congress (he always is the commander in chief - but that was with congress required to give him the power to conduct a war - he bypassed that requirement in Iraq)
The last part of this is that this also authorizes the president to use the military inside the US homeland - which is again not only against the Constitution, it violates all states constitutions - which is why there was so much delay in using them during Katrina - they basically had to get the Governor to authorize the use in La.
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