Civil Service has been successful in maintaining and exercising neutrality. Discuss.

The British executive is divided into two halves, the political half and the administrative half. The political arm consists of the elected and unelected politicians who run the various departments and sit in cabinet, while the administrative half consists of the civil service. The civil service is essentially the mechanism of government, implementing the policies created by politicians. The civil service has a hierarchical structure, stretching from the top officials concerned with policy matters, right down to the hundreds of thousands of junior civil servants concerned solely with administration. Senior civil servants have traditionally been seen as responsible for running government departments and work closely with the actual minister, and include the posts from assistant secretary to permanent secretary.
Traditionally the civil service has had a closed career structure. Recruits would largely come from Oxbridge and be chosen because of general intellectual skills rather than re...