At this point there are no "good" answers, but the path to the "right" answer is pretty clear, it is unsustainable to balance the retirement of a few on the labors of others.
I've made a number of suggestions to folks in Sacremento, pretty much anyone who asks and some that don't. On various ways the system might work. One outcome though is you don't get "lifetime income" unless you do what Mr. Money Mustache suggests and convert your lifestyle into something that can survive on a 3-4% annual withdrawal rate of your accumulated benefit.
There needs to be a "retirement" value for government employment that results in a good retirement but not extravagant. Sorry, but once you start passing the fifty thousand in retirement your getting a bit much. I would cap any retirement at median for your region, with minor and I mean MINOR boosts to cover medical for special circumstances, like really hurt in line of duty.
Go look at the bad retirements that people are paying.
I think the whole public servant thing is largely a myth.
For what its worth, its pretty easy to talk to these people. Its hard not to talk to them when an election is coming up.
I sometimes think voters that care enough to engage are a myth. :-)
I did one contract for a state government long ago. A friend of a friend brought me in because she knew I'd be unable to comprehend the normal pace of government work, and would therefore cluelessly batter my way though institutional inertia to get things done in time to meet certain goals.
I am definitely not suited for large organization, private or public. And there certainly were people who were just punching a clock. But a lot of people were, despite decades of service, still coming in every day determined to make things better.
As far as I can tell, it's the same thing with the teachers I know. It is a hard job, much more difficult than I could ever do. But despite that, most teachers I've met are doing the work because they really like teaching, and they care about what happens.
It blows my mind, really. My short attention span and desire to stir up trouble mean I'm well suited for startups, but could never spend 40 years doing the same thing. That, however, is exactly what we want out of government: stability, reliability, predictability.