I've never actually looked into government tech jobs, but my assumption is that they would pay much less than a competent person could make in the private sector. Other than pay or patriotism, what would motivate a competent person to want to work for the government?
If you think that your government should be doing things a different way, and you feel you know how to do it better then you have a couple of avenues to participate. One of them is joining the government in a capacity that allows you to affect change directly.
It's true, you aren't going to get paid $500,000 a year for being a software engineer. However, the USG does not pay subsistence wages. For entry level Data Science jobs in Boston we pay better than the market, and with better benefits, a union, matching investment accounts, low cost health insurance, stability and many other things you don't have elsewhere.
We also have opportunities to work on things that you just can't elsewhere.
Let's be honest - working for the government is a very poor way to affect change in it. The decision makers are also very far removed compared to private corporations and certainly so compared to smaller more agile companies like startups.
I am sitting here, as a government employee, telling you that you can actually make change. And at least for this problem set, you can make it in an extremely impactful way.
In what way have you effected change in the government? In what ways have you seen those around you do so (you must have witnessed this, by your stated claims)? I was in the military, which is a different beast entirely, but worked constantly with fairly high level government employees. They always seemed powerless, and to have accepted that.
But in the federal government sometimes the decision makers are so absent that you become the decision maker. As in, the President appoints his golf buddy to run a big agency, that guy spends all his time with hookers and drugs and your agency is left to its own devices.
I'm sorry, I don't want people in the government unilaterally implementing change they happen to think is the right thing, anymore than I want a dictator.
