Put simply, there is the Crown, and there is the Monarch. The Crown is the institution from which all authority in the UK derives. The Courts and police are authorised by the Crown, civil servants are employed by the Crown, and so on. Parliament draws its authority from the Crown and its mandate from the voters. The Crown is not a person and has no opinions or agenda. The role of the Monarch is to perform the physical functions associated with the insitution of the Crown. To put a signature on Acts of Parliament, and the Commissions and Warrants that formally empower judges and police officers.

The ceremonial 'public duties' performed by the Monarch were originally taken on voluntarily or by invitation, such as the laying of a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. These, like the visits abroad, are not part of the Monarchs' constitutional duties snd though deemed 'official' are in fact voluntary.

The mistake made by the Founding Fathers was in allowing the office of President to have actual political power which can be exercised without the approval of Congress.