I think in any organisation of 10-11,000 people (if you take the CS as a whole) it is invariable that some of the work will be routine or mundane. Also as the CS is responsible for many schemes and services, this in turn leads to less than exciting work.
However, the Civil Service is not merely about processing forms etc. but important work is carried out through policy development, policy implementation, legislative work and many other areas in which the CS is involved.
As regards HR practices, the culture of the CS was indeed stilted for many years. However through Partnership, Sustaining Progress and other internal intiatives, this culture is gradually being changed. What's the old phrase, a lot done...
Not getting at you personally Magoo, but I do find it annoying that the stereotypical reaction to Civil Servants and the Civil Service is that of the job for life, paper pushing waster when in nine out of ten cases it is simply not the case. The original postings related to people trying to get into the CS and as someone else said, if it so bad why are there so many people competing for the jobs??