Hasn’t it always been thus?
The fresh-faced new leader poses with his hand-picked ensemble cast on the steps of Government Buildings.
The brand new junior ministers are thrilled. The reshuffled but still returning Ministers of State are relieved. Shaken not stirred, perhaps.
But some are always left out in the cold, often after being led up the proverbial garden path.
Waterford TD John Deasy, the capable son of the late Austin Deasy, and the dependable party chairman Martin Heydon must be particularly gutted.
And then there is the other glaring problem: The 50 shades of grey suits in the group photograph. With a total of 34 jobs to distribute, Mr Varadkar chose to give seven to women.
Those around the Taoiseach point as mitigating factors to the award of the key European Affairs post to the youthful Helen McEntee and the retention of Frances Fitzgerald as Tanaiste in the face of internal party opposition.
The reorganisation of responsibilities is also highlighted but rather undermined by the fact Catherine Byrne got the demoted Marcella Corcoran Kennedy's old health promotion brief added to her previous drugs strategy one.
The strangest thing is Mr Varadkar was unable to mine a seam of female talent because of his self-imposed ban on favouring those elected in 2016.
The 50-strong Fine Gael party has just 11 women TDs, four of whom are newcomers - and three of those were supporters of Mr Varadkar's leadership rival, Simon Coveney.
The thinking appears to have been that they could not be favoured because it would be unfair to those who had been in the House longer (especially when there were so many male supporters to reward).
But in politics, as in so many other sectors, there are lots of long-serving men.
That is not the fault of the mostly hard-working men, of course. But less experienced - in the sense of having spent less time there - women have to be given a leg up to overcome that traditional bias.
It’s awkward and potentially very unpopular. Politicians tend not to like that.
