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People seem to be under the impression that the senior civil service creates policy. They don't. They implement policy. They are handed policy objectives and f

• dragonwriter 10y ago
  > People seem to be under the impression that the senior civil service creates policy. These are people in positions that, I believe, are all political appointments, not civil service jobs. They are all career foreign service officers who have been in non-political jobs at State for decades, and all but one seem to have held political appointments under Presidents of both parties, but they aren't "senior civil service".
• Bartweiss 10y ago
  > People seem to be under the impression that the senior civil service creates policy. Arguably they do create policy, in the Yes, Minister sense that they'll happily modify or kill a political initiative that would knock things off an even keel. There a lot of things that do or don't happen pretty much heedless of what politicians demand. Of course, that doesn't derail your metaphor. A good PM can do a lot to guide a client or executive away from their original demands to a better plan that still satisfies them. This is still a huge loss of institutional knowledge and ability to execute properly.