It seems much harder to suspend that disbelief on either competence or that they're all very sound and nice people. Is that just my ageing or have things changed a little?
The thing is, those exams tested for a certain kind of confident general intelligence, and the upper echelons of the UK university system was extremely, extremely good at producing people like this-- but that didnt mean they had deep knowledge of anything, or that they had a moral compass, or even believed anything in particular.
By way of example, in my college, you had to read some books, write essays taking a position, and defend it in real time to your tutor and a few peers. Twice a week for three years. You very rapidly learned how to pivot an argument, adapt to changing ground, even reverse your position. Do you see now why people like Boris Johnson are so eloquent without actually saying anything of meaning? That is the entire elite political class of Britain. And they are served by the same types of people. Its a blessing and a curse that civil servants have the intellectual flexibility to say the sun rises in the East to one minister and in the West to another, but that's how you get Sir Humphrey.
Equally hilarious, but taking a very different approach
I can't imagine the public service advice to Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and I'll leave the current one alone for now. I would have trouble suspending disbelief that it was as competent as Sir Humphry in his core competence. Sure every single f*king politician, judge, public servant and policy maker have their brain fall out of the ear as soon as "...using a computer on the internet.." is somewhere in what they are being told. It's truly astounding and embarrassing but that is different to say, to cite one example, Liz Truss deciding to cut taxes and increase spending when they're already broke and the obvious repercussions of that. ie Bank of England having to enter the markets to prevent crisis.
"That's very courageous prime minister. Have you considered where you will take your holidays next week?"