The real problem is government procurement program structures. There's an insane number of layers/middlemen who need to get their "fair share". Congress isn't

The real problem is government procurement program structures. There's an insane number of layers/middlemen who need to get their "fair share". Congress isn't measured in budget but measured in "rah rah factor" and military know this thusly feed into it. NASA during the shuttle era was no different. The shuttle was an absolutely terrible design of compromises given towards different military branches to gain funding. While painful, the best thing was Bush defunding the shuttle program and pushing it towards privatization. I'll be the first to admit, if SpaceX wasn't around, this would probably be a dubious move and no better than NASA contracting it directly (looking at you Starliner). Basically we want a "SpaceX of military fighter jets", which sadly can't exist.