Running service rsyslog reload no longer does anything

Issue

• It used to be that running service rsyslog reload would make rsyslog reread its config file; however, this doesn't work any more.
• Inspecting /etc/init.d/rsyslog shows that the reload function simply causes exit 3 to be run. Why?
• We use /etc/init.d/rsyslog reload in /etc/logrotate.d/syslog logrotate configuration, but rsyslogd still writes to old log file. Why?

$ cat /etc/logrotate.d/syslog 
/var/log/warn /var/log/messages /var/log/kern /var/log/adminlog /var/log/secure /var/log/cron {
...
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /etc/init.d/rsyslog reload
    endscript
}