To the minds of Bolingbroke, Swift, and Pope, Walpole perfected a politics of administration and manipulation that contributed generously to the total degradation of public life.  Politics for Bolingbroke’s circle was supposed to be played out in an elaborate theater where the style of the performance was almost more significant than the deeds done.  In order to perform the governmental roles of statecraft properly, one had to be properly bred.  Walpole’s administration had instead, they felt, perfected politics as an acquired skill, one of conciliating interests and manipulating men, mean talents that stripped the glory and the gloss from politics.  The image Bolingbroke preferred shines through the many classical allusions found in his and opposition writings.  With theatrical gravity, noble gentlemen stand before the people and win support by virtue of their eloquence and the compelling aesthetic force of their rhetoric, whereas in his own age Bolingbroke felt that politics consisted of sordid and undramatic management and behind-the-scenes manipulation of interests and ambitions. ~Isaac Kramnick, Bolingbroke & His Circle