It's part of the reason the long-serving public servant is being appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on Tuesday as part of the Australia Day honours list.

Those 40 years, Mr Quinlivan said, were hugely rewarding and he met plenty of Australians deeply committed to serving the country.

But the changing times have also meant a worrying trend away from the Westminster system had emerged.

"The single biggest change that's happened - that's been happening for a long time but I think it's happening faster now - is the departures from the traditional Westminster system of government," Mr Quinlivan said.

"There is a job at some point to try and modernise the way we operate government with the kind of checks and balances that the Westminster system no longer provides us in Australia."

He said it was partly to do with the public's changing expectation of the government - something he believes was exacerbated by the short term media cycle.

Now, there was less of on emphasis on making the world "a better place" or making the economy run more efficiently.

"In some ways, government is more difficult now than it was because the world is a messier place," Mr Quinlivan said.

"On the other hand, in some ways, the community's expectations of government are simpler than they were - there's a lot more emphasis on handling things now rather than informing, reforming and change.

"The governments have a much lesser vision for the country nowadays than they once did. I think that's very sad, we've lost a lot there."

Mr Quinlivan was the department's secretary from 2015 to early 2020 when he was replaced with current secretary Andrew Metcalfe after Prime Minister Scott Morrison's major department overhaul.

The news came as a surprise to him but he was quick to note he wasn't bitter about the reshuffle that left him without a department.

"I was surprised obviously but you move on quickly," Mr Quinlivan said.

"There's plenty of things to do in life and I've quickly made the adjustments. I'm not as busy as I was but I'm about as busy as I want to be at the moment [and] it's working quite well."

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He landed on his feet a few months later when it was announced he would take up the role of New South Wales' first agriculture commissioner. Mr Quinlivan said it had been an interesting post to take up during the middle of a global pandemic.

"It's been a very, very strange time to be starting a new role where personal contacts are so important but anyway, you use whatever tools you've got available to you," Mr Quinlivan said.

"I think most people are learning to work effectively through remote communications mechanisms.

"I think businesses and governments have learned that they don't need to spend anywhere near as much time and money on travel as we once did and ... it'll be a very positive learning from this experience."

It's an adaption many were quick to take to as the country remained indoors and the pandemic changed life, and particularly work, as we knew it.

The public service, Mr Quinlivan said, led by example, showing how the bureaucracy could still remain efficient and effective despite the chaos that swirled around them.

"It showed what a dedicated, well-organised [public service] can do in a crisis situation and people have worked tirelessly to deliver good outcomes for the Australian community and I'm not surprised by that at all," Mr Quinlivan said.

Mr Quinlivan said being being appointed an Order of Australia officer felt he was being rewarded for the work he'd done in collaboration with others over the years but he was still honoured to receive the distinguished title.

"I feel like I have, sort of, stood on the shoulders of others before me and around me," Mr Quinlivan said.

"I don't really feel like it's a recognition of the things I've done personally because most things you cannot reasonably claim for your own.

"But obviously some people thought that my contribution to the collective efforts in those areas over a long period of time was worthy and I am very happy to get the award in that sense."

While Mr Quinlivan's has shifted his public service career from federal to state, it remains in line with his lifelong mantra - seek new experiences and don't stay in the same spot for too long.

It's what he'd recommend to incoming graduates and those still early on in their careers, especially during this period of the "new normal".

"My advice to new people has always been to move around and seek new experiences and learn as much as you can because it'll all become useful when you begin to exercise judgements and responsibility," Mr Quinlivan said.

"I do think that's something that we will need to be very careful of in a world where people are not working in the office as much as they have done in the past - that people are trained and acquire the kind of experience they need to be effective in their roles.

"And get a wealth of experiences around different parts of the public and private sector."