Answer: Concentration of power in the hands of royalty (in France) and decline of the old aristocracy (whose power derived from the ownership of lands) which was also very important from military point of view (noblesse d´epée). The King became the only source of the power and increasingly became synonymous with the "state". France (in contrast to German speaking Europe) was centralized already in the 18th century.
Explanation: Hereditary "Noblesse d´epée" was substituted by bureacratic "noblesse de robe" that dependent almost totally to the king. Noblesse de robe can be considered an ancestor of today´s bureaucracy.