As a practical matter the politics/administration dichotomy offered some protection for a fledgling profession.public administration in general was still new When the Depression struck in 1929,and there was reason to believe that an educated corps of professional governmental administrators would be seen by elected office holders as a disposable luxury. The dichotomy , Which held that public administrators merely brought efficiency to the execution of political choices (and thus,in their bland, bloodless, apolitical, and clerical way,more than paid for themselves),provided a shield behind which public administrators could lower their political profile and justify their costs.