After the loss of 11 people from some of its most senior positions, questions are now being asked about whether the influence in Canberra of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which bills itself as Australia's largest national business organisation that represents 300,000 Australian businesses, is on the wane.

Leading the exodus was former chief executive Peter Anderson, who stepped down in January.

Chief economist Greg Evans, workplace policy director Daniel Mammone, media chief David Turnbull, and senior economic advisers Burchell Wilson, Cate Clunies-Ross and Siwei Goo have all left, as have a second industrial relations adviser, the chief executive's assistant and two more office staff.

Two of those staff have moved on to work as advisers for the Coalition government, while most of the rest have quickly found employment elsewhere.

The ACCI – along with the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and, to a lesser extent, the Minerals Council of Australia and the National Farmers' Federation – is one of the "big five" representative business groups.

The big five are some of the best-known faces of corporate Australia, publicly arguing the case for business-friendly policy and privately wielding influence behind closed doors.

The influence of the BCA, which comprises the chief executives of Australia's top 100 companies, has grown since the election. It played a role in the formulation of thegovernment's National Commission of Audit and new Competitiveness Agenda, released earlier this week.

However, it is less clear whether ACCI's influence in Canberra – a concept that is difficult to define at the best of times – is what it once was.

Before the election, Mr Anderson led a hard-driving campaign based on the idea that small business was "too big to ignore".

The organisation was widely seen by Labor types as the most blatantly pro-Coalition, while the BCA and the AiG took more nuanced positions on touchstone issues such as carbon pricing and industrial relations. The ACCI was certainly too big to ignore.

Several political lobbyists contacted by Fairfax Media – all of whom declined to be named – suggested the ACCI had been held back by its federated structure, which vests power, influence and, crucially, funding in the hands of much wealthier and better-staffed state chambers of commerce.

"They were being starved of funds towards the end of the Labor government period," one lobbyist said. "There was a real power struggle between the national office and the states."

Another said the federated structure was a "disaster" for the national office and new chief executive Kate Carnell, who took over in February, had been brought in to shake things up and "raise the organisation's profile".

"Kate is in the media very regularly and that can be a proxy for influence, but then again, you don't see the Pharmacy Guild out in the media," the lobbyist said.

No former staff members contacted by Fairfax Media wished to go on the record for this article.

Several, however, suggested that the exodus had led to a loss of corporate memory that would take some time to recover.

"The wider strategy and our established positions, in IR, carbon, energy and the like hasn't necessarily been carried forward since the election," said one, who asked not to be named.

A second former staffer agrees that the ACCI had been a pre-eminent voice in the policy debate in Canberra, but that voice had been diminished in the past year.

Both agreed with the outsiders' assessment that the federated structure had held the ACCI back by constraining funds and not allowing it to be more nimble in a policy sense. Would-be member organisations can directly join the AiG, for example, which reduces uncertainty about funding.

However, both were also quick to praise Ms Carnell, a former ACT chief minister who has also run the Australian Food and Grocery Council and mental health not-for-profit Beyond Blue.

"All organisations go through stages like this sometimes and, in some respects, perhaps ACCI didn't keep up with some of the other major national bodies in recent years," said one former staffer.

Ms Carnell, for her part, made no bones about the fact that she was revamping the organisation, as new chief executives are wont to do.

"Some of that [exodus] happened before I came on board and a decision was also made by the board to revamp our IR team, so we employed three new people, headed up by Richard Clancy from VECCI [the Victorian chamber of commerce]," she said.

"We've hired two extra people in the IR space because of all the modern award revamps. There are a some major issues on our agenda."

Another key player in the organisation, chief operating officer John Osborn, has been handed a new role. Scott Kompo-Harms has been hired as senior economist and the hunt was on for more staff, Ms Carnell said.

"The reason I was interested in this job is that we are so broad, we can run an evidence-based business line, we don't attempt to keep all our members happy all the time," she said.

"I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't think ACCI had a healthy future."

Reassuringly for Ms Carnell, government insiders are quick to praise her too, declaring that doors were open.

"She can get in the ears of ministers, no doubt," said one, "I'm not sure that was the same with Anderson."

Reviews of the tax system, the federation and the industrial system are in prospect before the election, and Ms Carnell will certainly have her work cut out for her.