Revolutionaries who once imagined they would topple Gaddafi in days have had to cobble together an administration from scratch
Most of their names are kept secret. They often meet in hiding – at times in a church in Benghazi, on other occasions as far away as Tobruk. Some members of what amounts to the government of revolutionary Libya are not seen at all. They are just voices down a phone line.
As a popular uprising has evolved into an armed conflict that could drag on, the revolutionaries who once imagined that they would topple Muammar Gaddafi within days and inherit the apparatus of government have instead had to cobble together their own to run a war, maintain an economy and empty the dustbins.
The interim national council – just one of a handful of names it has given itself in its short existence – has registered swift successes, not least in persuading France to recognise it as Libya's de facto government.
That opened the way for the air strikes that saved the revolution as it was about to be crushed by Gaddafi's tanks.
At the London conference on Tuesday the council was feted by western leaders and, in effect, anointed as the government in waiting.
Yet the administration's own members concede that its short tenure has been marked by chaos and division over issues such as the involvement of prominent former figures in the Gaddafi regime. Some Libyans are concerned about whom the rebel government represents and whether its military wing has political ambitions of its own.
The council is headed by Mahmoud Jibril, who led the negotiations with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and came to London as its public face.
But it has named only 11 of its 31 members, drawn from towns and cities under the rebels' control, out of concern for the safety of relatives still in Gaddafi-held areas. The full council has never met because of the difficulty in them all getting to Benghazi.
Public confidence in it has been shaken by its military campaign allowing Gaddafi's forces to reach the brink of seizing the de facto rebel capital, Benghazi, 10 days ago before the air strikes began.
The members themselves are also aware that in their desperation to win western support with ceaseless pronouncements about the council's commitment to a secular multi-party democracy they have failed to make their case to many Libyans.
Sources close to the council say some of the unnamed members are uncomfortable with such an overwhelmingly pro-western message, even if it is diplomatically convenient. The idea that Libya should be declared a secular state also sits uneasily with them.
For instance, objections have been raised about handing responsibility for education in the provisional administration to Fathi Baja, from Benghazi, because he is regarded as an atheist by some on the council.
Those tensions were reflected in Tuesday's statement, which nodded to Islam by envisaging "a state that draws strength from our strong religious beliefs in peace, truth, justice and equality".
The issue of accepting servants of Gaddafi into their midst has also caused friction. The former interior and justice ministers Abdel Fattah Younis and Mustafa Abdul Jalil jumped ship and were swiftly embraced by the revolutionaries, keen to encourage other Gaddafi officials to follow in the hope the dictatorship would collapse.
When it came to forming an administration, Jalil was chosen as chairman of the interim council partly because he at least had some experience in government. But he has been sidelined in recent days in favour of Jibril in an attempt to get a grip on the political chaos and military setbacks.
Younis, who has a $4m bounty on his head from the regime, was called on as the military situation rapidly deteriorated after Gaddafi recovered from the shock of the uprising to gather his forces and unleash them on the rebels.
But the appointment of Younis to head the rebel forces, because he also served as the former head of Gaddafi's special forces and commanded a loyalty among former soldiers, was met with scepticism.
Mustafa Gheriani, a revolutionary council spokesman, conceded that the appointment had drawn strong opposition.
"It was very difficult to get Younis accepted, particularly by young men. He is associated with Gaddafi and it took a while. We had to do a lot of footwork to get him accepted," he said.
Ali Tarhouni, who taught economics at the University of Washington until he was appointed the rebel administration's finance minister last week, said the process "was, and still is, very chaotic … you need a political body that defines what this revolution is about, and an army on the ground".
Tarhouni returned to Libya last month after fleeing to the US in 1973 following a jail sentence for anti-Gaddafi political activities. He was sentenced to death in absentia five years later. The council has "in general dropped the ball many places, although not by intention", he said.
"We will clean it up, that I promise you," he said. "The overall goal is to get rid of Gaddafi then build a democratic country [but] we need to put our house in order first."
Council spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah acknowledged the problems. "Nobody in Libya had any political experience. For 42 years this guy was running a one-man show, him and his family. So there isn't anybody in Libya who can come out and say I've got some experience in a political structure. Everybody's learning the process as they go along," he said.
"Within one month the people have to be given some sort of credit that they formed a national council, they formed local councils to run day to day the liberated cities.
"There's still running water. There's still electricity. There's still some semblance of a communications system.
"At the same time they were doing emergency relief for hospitals, food supplies locally and to the front. All while being attacked and bombarded. I think people really came together, whereas in the past it was divide and conquer."
That's a view shared by many of the revolution's enthusiasts still euphoric simply because they can say what they think without being dispatched to one of Gaddafi's torture chambers.
Dozens of Arabic tents have popped up on Benghazi's seafront to express solidarity with the revolution or highlight a group of the regime's victims.
There is a tent to the 1,200 prisoners massacred during an uprising in the city which indirectly helped spark the present insurrection. There are also shopkeepers such as Jalal Tuwahni, who owns a clothing outlet and is sitting in a tent put up by businessmen.
Tuwahni says the revolutionary council has its shortcomings but has delivered on what matters. "They got the French on board. They got people fighting for us. They made that happen," he said. "We don't have a lot of people who know about politics or government. It's not easy for them."