Having worked for the gummint briefly, I'm pretty sure it wasn't there to start with. I met a few (very few) incredibly talented civil servants, but the rest were just managing to radiate at 98.6F and failing that on occasion. It's an environment that selects for many of the least desirable traits in an effort to be "fair".

(Don't look at me that way. It was a student job. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> )