A good friend of mine took a contract at a Social Security office in Orange County. They way he tells it the Administrative staff would occasionally take a break from their social hour to do a bit of work. They did not want to make important decisions in case there was a problem and it jeopardized their “retirement”. My brother in law tells of the same problem at the California parks where he works as a park ranger. At some point within a few years of retirement management would not make any important decisions for the same reason.
Sooo, not wanting to PO the rank and file worker, there is absolutely NO doubt we could fire 1/2 of the administrators in our government and not even notice they were gone, except all of a sudden there would be money for schools, police, fire and parks.
With government work, you trade off pay and benefits for stable long term pay and a reasonable pension. Today they expect incredible pay and benefits, a recession proof pension and stable employment. All at a time where the business engine that used to pay for all that is going in the toilet.