Would the question about the theory of public administration ever be settled? It is now more than a century that a search for the theory of public administration has been continuing with no settlement in sight. Does this presuppose that the search for such theory is an exercise in futility? Where did the discourse in the field get it so wrong that it failed to evolve into a consensus on the universally-acceptable theory of public administration? This article examines these questions, which undergird the historiography of the discipline. They are not new. However, the fact that they remain unanswered makes their continued consideration necessary. In this article the discourse on the theory of public administration is deconstructed. Its thesis is that much of the discourse on the theory of public administration is embedded in Wilsonian scholarship and the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm, which their epistemological character is ba