This book provides a succinct overview of the development of the civil service since 1945. Adopting a broad historical approach, it assesses the changes in organization, structure and management of the Whitehall machine, alongside the continuities in the policy and practice of public administration.

Kevin Theakston draws on the full range of recent scholarship, documents in the Public Record Office, and the many post-war official investigations and reports to provide a balanced analysis of the key themes and issues concerning the power of the civil service, official secrecy, ethics and accountability in Whitehall, and the reform of the government machine.

The author discusses the relationship between each post-war government and the mandarins - from Attlee and Churchill, to Thatcher and Major. He assesses the role and power of some of the titans of Whitehall - Sir Edward Bridges, Sir William Armstrong, Sir Robert Armstrong, and the current Head of the Civil Service, Sir Robin Butler.

The book examines the various attempts to overhaul the machinery of government and the civil service from the 1940s to the present day, dealing with the Fulton Report, Edward Heath's reforms of government, the Next Steps, 'market testing' and 'contracting out' in a clear and systematic way.