With the ousting of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, his venerable chief of state Peta Credlin is gone too.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has selected public servant Drew Clarke to be acting chief of staff during the current handover period.

Insiders consider it a wise appointment, given that much of the federal bureaucracy feels frozen out of the decision making process.

It is also the continuation of a trend by Mr Turnbull, whose usual office chief Richard Windeyer is also from the executive ranks of the Australian Public Service.

Mr Windeyer is currently on holiday.

John Howard’s former chief of staff Grahame Morris, who now works for a Liberal-aligned lobby, spokes on the matter to Fairfax reporters.

“[Mr Clarke] is a competent bloke who clearly has the trust of the PM,” Mr Morris said.

“It makes sense someone who has worked closely with [Mr Turnbull] come in and be acting chief of staff.”

Mr Morris would not comment on what he thought the final make up of Mr Turnbull's office would look like.

Mr Clarke worked closely with Mr Turnbull in his previous role as secretary of the Department of Communications.

They were both central to the development of the Digital Transformation Office – part of an attempt to improve the way the 160,000-strong federal public service deals with members of the public.

The DTO's chief executive Paul Shetler said earlier this year that the reforms were desperately need, as the government was failing members of the public.

“Our job is to serve the public and we are failing,” Mr Shetler said.

“It's not good enough in the age of Uber and Airbnb.

“If Amazon did that they'd go out of business.”

But both Mr Clarke and Mr Windeyer will likely seek less spotlight than their predecessor Peta Credlin did while serving Tony Abbott, though many say this was simply because Ms Credlin was a woman.