I can't speak for all of them, or even a majority of them, but I do make a point to get to know my representatives (and the candidates who would like to be elected) and have found a number of people who would rather not have to be in government but have found themselves forced their by a sense of "if no one else will do this I guess I will" sort of duty.

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. :-)

Not in my experience.

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.