Sterility of inadequate policies embraced by Civil Service (11)
I believe the answer is:
cleanliness
'sterility' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'inadequate policies embraced by civil service' is the wordplay.
'inadequate' becomes 'lean'.
'policies' becomes 'lines' (as in a party line, a political policy or view).
'embraced by' indicates putting letters inside.
'civil service' becomes 'cs'.
'lean'+'lines'='leanlines'
'leanlines' placed within 'cs' is 'CLEANLINESS'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for cleanliness that I've seen before include "Proverbially, almost as good as piety" , "Purity" .)