Dear CK: the arrogance and indifference of civil service is not just English, it's European. I remember when I was studying German in the thirties, with then state of the art Linguaphone records (with cactus needles to reduce wear!) several minutes were devoted to the "Beamtenton" the slightly loud, unemotional, robotlike
speech of all functionaries, who made no pretense of being public servants.