The problem is that they are 'trained' in quite a narrow way along the lines of a particular ideology and a particular way of working and after time, if personal experience or insight into the experiences of others doesn't show them other alternatives or consequences, then they get stuck in a narrow minded way of thinking. You need people outside of that arena to help influence the evolution of ideologies, the construction of social problems and their causes and from that the development of solutions that may actually work.
If politics consisted only of people who had nothing more than 'real life' to go on and no firm political training, that would be equally disasterous! Ad astra per aspera
I know plenty of talented civil servants, but some very obstructive (or just plain useless) ones too. The remit is different and it is up to politicians to choose how much they rely on the civil servants and how much they use their own brains to think through the issues and provide leadership. Ad astra per aspera
But one thing I have noticed with my Open University degree is that they are very progressive in the way they define issues and teach social policy. I imagine other courses could choose differing ideologies as a base for discussion and I have heard complaints from people who think the OU course is too 'left wing'. ie the examples used to critique different theories and perspectives and conclusions drawn within the structure of the course may differ depend on the leanings of the authors of the syllabus. Ad astra per aspera
