Among the ambitious and entrepreneurial, this sort of behavior is nothing new.

In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin relates how he found himself as a government official for the colony of Pennsylvania and then proceeded to hire his own printing shop whenever his office needed to publish a widely circulated document or pamphlet.

BTW, that autobiography is a great read. you can find it for free on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20203/20203-h/20203-h.htm