WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Federal Reserve policy committee gather again this week for what is sure to be a less dramatic meeting than last month, when they unveiled a new program of bond buying to try to drive down unemployment.

But while major changes in policy will probably be scarce when the Federal Open Market Committee unveils its handiwork Wednesday afternoon, the events of the six weeks since its last big change have shown the real importance of the Fed’s new approach to policy.