Bureaucrats in the US rarely end up with full pockets. As with a great deal of government IT work, it's private companies that are raking in the money. Healthcare.gov in particular was outsourced.

I don't think the problem is "top talent". I think the problem is how people think about software, and therefore how they budget for and manage it. And I don't think the problem is unique to government. I've heard about plenty of private sector giant-project boondoggles where enormous sums were wasted in similar fashions. It's just that those don't make the newspapers, but instead get gossiped about by tech people over beers.