I must say that Professor Welsh knows more about this than I do. If she says she doesn't know a lot, that means you'll know how much I know.
However, I think I can draw a parallel with the situation of consular affairs today to the situation the Canadian Armed Forces face with domestic deployments. What I mean by that is there was a time when the Canadian Armed Forces were called to do a domestic deployment once in a blue moon and, when they were, they figured things out. They went and they did what they had to do, which meant that their processes weren't formalized. There was a lot of ad hockery, and you hoped you wouldn't have to do it very often.
Similarly, the consular service wasn't being called on nearly as often as it is being called on now and is likely to be called on now, which means that it is probably time for a more sophisticated formalized approach to something that is much less of a one-off in emergencies and is going to be a regular part of doing business.
I think we are in a situation similar to the situation that the Canadian Armed Forces are facing, in that one of these duties that wasn't the highlight of what you do is coming to dominate more than it used to.