&gt;  Think that depends a lot on the particular society. My home country Norway certainly &quot;suffers&quot; from the professional politicians, but they still have quite varied backgrounds: teachers, agriculture degrees, economists, political science, machine operator etc.<p>But after a year or more in office, they all seem to walk and talk the same way anyways.<p>And i can&#x27;t shake the feeling that the diversity is slipping.<p>One of the old boys of AP, and perhaps one of the last with a industrial background to hold a government position, said that when he began he could work a full day at the factory and then go to meetings in the afternoon. But that nowadays you basically had to quit your other job to keep up, even on the local level.