I noticed on a new Ubuntu 16.04 install that my root user's .bashrc differed slightly in behavior from a new user I had just created on the same box.
From what I can find, the root user's .bashrc file comes from the base-files package: http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/base-files
The /etc/skel files are provided by bash according to Restore /etc/skel files
Are there reasons for the difference?