I briefly worked for a large federal contractor, far away from stuff like aerospace per se,* but I got the distinct impression that all the dysfunction and waste was inherent in the lack of communication between the government and the employees of the contractor. All around me were normal people trying to do a good job, but a lot of people seemed to be employed to prevent information from getting back and forth to the customer. You probably couldn't point to anyone specifically having malicious intent, but the feedback loop was so painful and convoluted that there must have been an enormous implicit cost.

*but oddly some major aerospace contractors had their fingers in the pie anyway.