I get that space and defense are apples to oranges, but there is no reason to think it is significantly different.
Why would any smart person want to work long term at a low paying job for a tyrannical government with extremely frustrating bureaucratic processes?
The best leave often apparently, how many of the best engineers actually stay for years?
One indication that I work with the best is where they go when their work here is done. In some cases, the finest work e.g. SpaceX has done is done with our alumni in leadership and contributor positions.
Another indication is top tier publications. Or the fact that our tech does what has never been done before by definition.
Another indicator is how many people are willing to work for a pay cut to be here and work on what we do. Speaking of coming from SpaceX and every major aerospace company.
Another indication comes from the partnerships we have where we collaborate as equals with any of those mythical "better" places.
It may not fit your world view or experience, but it is possible for good people with top notch skills to choose a career that does not focus solely on pay. We just work in an unprofitable domain. We don't work with incompetent people.
Can a SpaceX employee comment here? Work at SpaceX looks stressful. Elon Musk looks like a workaholic asshole expecting all their employees to do the same, but without getting rich. Maybe government work is boring by comparison, but you get a personal life.
One of the members of my group just left for SpaceX last year, because he just wanted to work somewhere else for a change. He was one of the better FSW engineers we had seen, and I'm sure he's helping SpaceX do great things!
Another friend of mine went off to Amazon to oversee their warehouse automation.
And we just hired a bunch of really stellar folks from NG who were fed up with their workplace. They seem to love it here.
It's an industry. Changeover is pretty normal.
They have an atrocious Work-Life Balance rating and reputation. Like bottom 2%. Expect their mission to become your life’s mission; 50-60 hour weeks.