1) The CivicActions directory structure for Drupal separates the Drupal core files from the codebase to make upgrades and backups easier. 2) It uses symlinks to link the Drupal core, sites files, and public HTML directory together so multiple versions of core can share the same codebase and sites files. 3) Benefits include easier core upgrades without moving files, simplified backups of all sites together, and ability to run multiple core versions for different sites from the same codebase location.