They get all the development work, and then regular staff have to try to actually get things working, and maintain it, not knowing how or why it was built that way, but by then the contractor is off doing something else.
During the last failed project I was in the middle of, in 2003 (mostly as an observer, because I actually worked there), I was making around $42k/yr, and the guy in the next cubicle was making $200k.
He knew different things than I did, but I also knew different things than he did, so the difference in pay was because he was a contractor, and therefore considered to be valuable.
Whenever I got a chance to actually do something, my stuff would slip into production and actually work, silently and forever, so I never got to be a hero by coming in on weekends to perform miracle rescues when everything blew up. Because it didn't. One reason that I was never considered to be an asset.
Anyhow, there's government all over. Exactly every town has it, every county, and every state, and there are lots of companies already set up to feed on it, and usually always looking for bodies to throw at it. You can find a niche.