The changing position of the public service is examined in relation to the growth of ministers’ policy roles. As the political executive assumed greater policy leadership, a stronger emphasis has been placed on the contestability of advice and increasing use of other advisory sources. There is a tendency for public service policy capacity to decline, but there are differences across the policy advisory systems due to country-specific patterns of reforms. The public service has become more disposed to being internally collaborative and externally engaged through policy processes, but regular injunctions for greater connectivity indicate continuing shortfalls. There is a question of whether a restoration of capacity is possible and what the advisory role is for a public service that has been emphasising generalist and process-based functions as a broker and convenor of advisory inputs.