During 25 years of direct rule in the North, power from Westminster was administered through the permanent Northern Ireland Civil Service and revolving British ministers, many of whom supervised more than one department.
In December 1999, as a result of the Belfast Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont went "live". Power now rests with 108 locally-elected politicians. Although it was suspended for three months last year, the Assembly returned after the Hillsborough deal between the pro-agreement parties in May.
The SDLP Assembly member for North Belfast, Mr Alban Maginness, believes the executive, assembly and committee system is now working well but that relations between the politicians and civil servants under devolution have yet to be settled.
"There is some residual bureaucratic resistance to decision-making by local politicians, and at a senior level the civil service needs to re-adapt to the new dispensation," he says.
The anti-agreement DUP Assembly member for Mid Ulster, the Rev Willie McCrea, says that under direct rule senior civil servants often had the final say.
"Ministers were coming in and they had such a wide brief it was difficult for them to make decisions. Although I would argue that some departments are still being run by civil servants - and it's not the departments headed by my party."
According to Mr McCrea, he encountered civil service "resistance" in his position as chair of the Stormont Environment Committee, when members requested internal department papers.
"No pro- or anti-agreement stance came into it. The members were there to scrutinise the process and we were making the point we had the legal right." The papers were subsequently furnished to the committee.
Mr Stephen King, an adviser to the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, claims a circle of senior civil servants, businessmen, trade union leaders and voluntary figures succeeded in establishing control during direct rule. "Local politicians are now trying to break this circle."
However, he acknowledges the professionalism of the civil servants and stresses they must work inside the difficult framework of a four-party Executive, with each party attempting to put its own stamp on policy.
Mr Alex Maskey, the Sinn Fein MLA for West Belfast, insists that resolving strained relationships with the civil service is "a fundamental issue as we move forward in cementing the peace process.
"The civil service has to become more reflective of society as a whole than it was under direct rule."
In February Mr Maskey raised in the Assembly a leaked memo between senior civil servants which discussed limits to the Assembly's scope to probe its work.
The leaked memo, written by the permanent secretary of a department, outlined "emerging difficulties" and noted the demands of various committees to have sight of working papers or to question officials.
A new report from the University of Ulster's INCORE research institute, ("From Protagonist to Pragmatist: Political Leadership in Societies in Transition") says politicians' interaction with the civil service is one of their central concerns about the new dispensation.
"I was not surprised to learn of the leaked civil service memo," says researcher Ms Cathy Gormley-Heenan. "Our research had already indicated at an early stage the fears within some political circles that the civil service did not want to relinquish the control which it had maintained over departments and areas during direct rule."
She believes a specific programme of transition is needed to promote a joint understanding of the civil service and its roles and structures for the political players and vice versa.
A spokesman for the civil service told The Irish Times yesterday that there was no evidence to support the INCORE report's claim of "deepening tensions" with politicians.
"It is wrong to suggest that the civil service were in `control' of departments during direct rule. The civil service have always been accountable to ministers and the democratic legislature but we particularly welcome the opportunity of working with locally elected ministers and the Assembly," he added.