I don't think anyone in the UK sees "Yes Minister" as a manual. Its comedy derives from exposing things that everybody perceives to be true (politicians want to have morals but are forced to let them go during election season, civil servants know they're supposed to be supporting the current government but will also need to work with the other party when the political tides change again, etc) but saying so in public is "not done".

It doesn't need to be a manual because it is accurately describing human weakness in the face of a complex world, and the results are (as in the real world) often highly absurd.