It’s no wonder consultancies have been replacing many functions of the public sector for the last decade or more.
As one of those people the author talks about, who went from working in politics to being a management consultant, and who also has a masters degree in government... what?
The author makes an almost imperceptible elision from talking about trying to get a job in politics where the task is policy formation and communications to *the public sector” which is a much broader issue and takes in the entire civil service, government executive agencies and arms length bodies and regulators, right the way down to the local police and GPs in rural areas.
Policy formation in the West is absolutely not being done by management consultants. Maybe research is commissioned from the bigger strategy firms (or they just do it voluntarily and make it available to influence the market space) but politician, their staff and a cadre of senior civil servants are still there, as ever. The people in the article failing to get jobs with politicians are not being replaced by McKinsey.
I also have to take issue with the general tone of the article about the changes in be public sector. There are very good reasons why centres of government are changing and not all of them are cuts (although that is a big part of it). If you study public policy over the past century:
It has become more open and inclusive, with broader debates and more voices included, bringing in business and third sector. Whitehall is still there but it reaches out to other actors much more readily when deciding what to do next.
The world is getting more technologically and politically complex and fast paced; the public is much more aware and has high expectations, and is willing to challenge government on its failures; and solutions are derived through more complex means. It is harder for civil servants to have all the right answers, hence the service is better at pulling in outsiders - including consulting firms - to answer questions using skills it can’t nurture itself.
In short, Whitehall is no longer a black box where a standing army of policy generalists can decide the shape of the world hidden away from view.
I don’t want to do the whole article line by line but it makes some dubious connections, and comes to some very pat conclusions when the real picture is much more complex and nuanced.