* Make it easier to fire incompetent people. A job that's in the service of the people should not be a cozy "I'm now set for life" type of gig.
* Pay semi-market rates.
* Stop going for the lowest bidder for contractors.
Private sector unions (making them impossible to fire)
Nepotism
Layers and layers of bureaucracy
Yes, my point exactly. I think it's cheaper to pay people a reasonable salary and less job security. Otherwise it just ends up being a lot of dead weight throughout the organization. This dead weight leads to low productivity, which in turn e.g. leads the management to bring on expensive consultants to try and fix it.
I remember when healthcare.gov was launched and the clusterfuck it was, and then a much of FAANG level employees had to quickly go and clean it up as charity.
Same reasons judges are paid a lot