The professional competitive civil service is often under attack, with many criticizing the federal workforce as just paper pushers or members of a nefarious "Deep State." But, the import of the professional civil service is often underrated and all one needs to do is look at the era just before the 19th century Pendleton Act was passed to codify the competitive civil service.

Tom Shoop is editor at large and the former executive vice president and editor in chief at GovExec Media. He has a post on GovExec.com headlined "That Time Reformers Took on Cronyism, Nepotism and Alcoholism in the Federal Workforce. He joined the podcast to discuss his post and the professional civil service.

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