As someone who has some experience with government agencies I can tell you the most intrinsically motivated, not-doing-it-for-the-money-but-for-the-cause people

As someone who has some experience with government agencies I can tell you the most intrinsically motivated, not-doing-it-for-the-money-but-for-the-cause people I have met in my life have been government employees. Sure they are rarely the public-facing clerk in some office, but there are people who do amazing work while they could literally earn double when they went for the private market. The idea that government employee = lazy/disorganized/unmotivated while private sector employee = hardworking/organized/motivated is not true. In fact the most hard to work with clients (because they wouldn't be on time, don't do work, do it lazily, etc) I ever had were all private sector and my client list includes literal art students in their twenties who go out partying all week, so that means something.