My contribution to the debate:
I don't have the time to track it down now, but either Aral or Miles had a conversation, in relation to the job of Count and other Barrayaran government jobs, roughly equivalent to:
"You mean one *becomes* the machine? Ick."
"That's the pathological version of a Count. Some do that. With others, it's like a prosthetic limb after a while."
I'm thinking Aral and Cordelia, in _Barrayar_. Textev Being?
I would imagine that there is a local term for "Suit"/"Stuffed Shirt" on Barrayar. I think it's a universal human failing, to allow the terms of one's job (or one's social group, or family standards, or hobby) to define oneself exclusively. "I am a
. I do/say/eat/wear/believe only what people who are are supposed to."
Part of Illyan's sheer scariness to most people was how he was able to internalize his job requirements so well, and devote so much of his life to Barrayaran security. Some security guards, you have the comforting knowledge that, one on one after hours, they would dig a holo of their five year old daughter out of a pocket and all too happily show her off. Miles remarked that Illyan had no loose ends for an enemy to grab ahold of. You'd expect a stuffed shirt to adhere strictly to the letter of the laid-down rules, not do anything to risk his neck. Illyan, as Chief of Security, did more than that, while retaining the blandness of a stuffed shirt. To somebody who had never met his more human side, that would be exceptionally intimidating. Illyan was never a stuffed shirt; he merely did his job exceptionally well.
In ... is it ACC? ...someone, probably Ekaterin, remarked that some young man was just responding to his cultural programming and sex drive, and if you'd stuffed one of her dresses and set it up, he'd do the mating dance for it.
The concept of Suit/Stuffed Shirt goes beyond the physical clothing and the job requirements, and gets into attitude. Blindly following the letter of the rules in disregard for the spirit leads one to suspect that the uniform for the job is doing the job, and there's no actual human being, with human thoughts and feelings, inside.