rhel7: Message “Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1: Timeout was reached” is coming on system after setting the hostname

hostnamectl set-hostname <hostname>
Error getting authority: Error initializing authority: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1: Timeout was reached (g-io-error-quark, 24)
Also other commands fail:

[root@rhel7u2a ~]# systemctl restart sshd
Error getting authority: Error initializing authority: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut: Activation of org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 timed out (g-dbus-error-quark, 20)
[root@rhel7u2a ~] #
Resolution
The permissions should be fixed:

chmod 644 /etc/passwd
chmod 000 /etc/shadow