Boris Johnson was elected after three years of bedlam, when the phrase “Conservative government” seemed to be a contradiction in terms. The period is known by some Tories as the “anarchy”, when ministers were at war with each other over Brexit. All this while, the civil servants ran government departments. Now things have changed, ministers are back – but with No 10 firmly in control. To the Prime Minister, the situation is urgent: Brexit will be complete on December 31 and reforms are needed. So if ministers are curt, it’s because time is a factor.

Ms Patel’s critics would put it another way: that she is a hanger-and-flogger, chosen as Home Secretary to reassure Tory target voters about robustness on law and order. She was never a very competent minister, they say, prone to anger because she ends up out of her depth so regularly. To have the permanent secretary of her department resign, and then threaten to sue the government because of the way he was treated, is proof of a woman fundamentally not up to her job.

Her supporters detect in all this a hint of sexism, perhaps worse. Why, they ask, is this Asian woman pilloried for behaviour that would be considered unremarkable amongst men? All this is standard political warfare. What is unusual – almost unprecedented – is to have the civil service involved.