I can't see things improving any until they fix the bidding process for government contractors, and that would require congress to fix it. I can't see that happening. The Congress as a whole, left or right, has an army of corporate campaign contributors that benefit from keeping the system the way it is, a labyrinthine mess only certain, usually larger or specialized, players have the time and legal expertise to navigate.
It's another problem where the folks most able to fix things are unwilling because they benefit from keeping the status quo or have no incentive to take risks. Many, many politicians in DC have private investments among contractors.
But even if all of these contractors and politicians were removed, the inertia of public sector work is immensely bad still across the government. Lack of correctly aligned funding, poor morale, and a huge body of highly invested folks that just wanted a paycheck and don't want to do more than the minimum. The attitude is very rational when change is so impossible over decades that it'd drive you insane to try to change anything of consequence. This is why I quit public sector work entirely - I care too much to spend years, decades of my life pushing a stubborn mule that's gotten complacent and has been beaten and demoralized among a lot of its life. This doesn't mean that it's like this absolutely everywhere but it is the case for almost everyone without lots of connections / credentials to get you into the actually good projects with actually good people with actually good leadership. But why should I try so hard just to have an acceptably enjoyable job when I can try a lot less in private sector and get something pretty reasonable right away?
