Yup, I'd ideally love to work in the public sector and do "good" but I'm not going to take a huge ass paycut in order to do so. Like, the full-time base pay of an analyst in my role (I'm an intern) is equivalent to ~Step 5/6 of GS11 (GS 11 being a mid management position, 13-15 is top level so it would take years upon years for me to even get close) and I'm a) not at FAANG or any of the top companies (Google's first year pay for my role is like $130k base, that doesn't even touch the stock compensation or anything else) and b) this is ignoring how career progression is also faster private sector.

For me to even consider working public sector, I'd have to be okay with a 50% minimum pay decrease, worse career progression, and if it all ideally works out, I get a sense of accomplishment for doing good for society (which is very idealistic given that many government jobs are just bureaucracy.)

It's not shocking at all that the only top talent that goes there is those who are genuinely in love with the mission; for the rest of us, even if we'd like to do good, we're literally better off working our normal private sector jobs and donating some money to the charity of our choice or something.