The decline in public trust has precipitated a "quiet crisis"in the federal civil service.
2 The recent report of theNational Commission on the Public Service, more commonlyreferred to as the Volcker Commission after itschair, Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the FederalReserve Board, recited alitany of shortcomings inthe federalpersonnel system.
3 Although no comparablevidenceis available on the status of state and local governmentcivil service systems, they no doubt havesuffered problemssimilar to those experienced at the federal level.