@sergeauckland &
@JJB70
My question was a bit of a cheeky leading one, as my wife used to be one of those technical civil servants. The impression I have is that most people in public service are trying to do what they see as the right thing, and this goes quite a long way up the food chain, until you get to the people who are hoping to get the very top jobs one day, or are already in one, and trying to kept it.
The description of a technocrat government is what I've always thought would work best, in truth probably full of people who you would not want to get stuck taking to at a party, but who can do methodical detailed work over the long term to drive improvements, people who would never tell you there is a simple fix to hugely complicated systems, with a huge number of issues already identifed. They will never get elected though.