Public servants complain even Rudd wasn't this bad Kevin Rudd was accused of having a dysfunctional relationship with the public service: [A former Rudd Government insider], who operated in a key role and observed much of the discussion and decision making, says ... "the Rudd Government was never, and could never have been, a functional government because of the man who ran it..." There is a section on "the culture of blame and fear throughout the government," claiming that Rudd's angry treatment of staff and public servants was very calculated... The paper says Rudd was a poor Cabinet chairman who rarely arrived on time for meetings, leaving ministers and officials twiddling their thumbs... This was a common complaint about the Rudd style: But there is one word beginning to be used by people in and around the Government: chaos... Key decisions are not being made... A senior Labor figure who has until now been a strong Rudd supporter predicted the public service would begin leaking against Rudd because of his treatment of them... Insiders say that barely a day seems to go by when the Prime Minister's office is not derailed by an ultra-sensitive leader who abandons his program at a whim... One senior government staffer said: "You've got no idea of the level of paranoia in Rudd's office at the moment. Former Rudd Government speechwriter James Button spoke for many: The truth is, Rudd was impossible to work with. He regularly treated his staff, public servants and backbenchers with rudeness and contempt... He made crushing demands on his staff, and when they laboured through the night to meet those demands, they received no thanks, and often the work was not used. People who dared to stand up to him were put in "the freezer" and not consulted or spoken to for months... He seemed to feel that everyone was always letting him down.... Vital decisions were held up while he struggled to make up his mind, frequently demanding more pieces of information that merely delayed the final result. But fast forward to now - and Julia Gillard is accused of having an even more dysfunctional relationship with the public service: High-level public servants across several departments have told The Canberra Times they believe the government to be in ""bunker mode"" and fearful of leaks against it. ""Trust with the bureaucracy has evaporated and relations between ministers and departments are at their lowest since Labor came to office,"" one said.... ""The release of the September 14 election date has only served to elevate the level of panic within government,"" one said. ""Staff in ministers" offices are just being outright rude to staff in the departments. And some of the ministers are just as bad, if not worse."" Others spoke of workloads becoming ""ridiculous"," ""over the top"" and ""unsustainable"." ""They want it yesterday and they want more of it than ever before,"" one said... ""There is zero consultation on policy and announcements, which means there is a last-minute scramble to do their bidding once they've decided on a course of action."" This sounds very much like the last days of the Rudd regime, too.