I generally consider most of the list of positives as negatives.
1. Huge sense of purpose.
Makes it even more frustrating when work which would serve the people is dashed due to petty internal politics and vanity projects.
2. Stability / 3. Pension
Widespread complacency about performance from entrenched employees and extreme defensiveness born from the knowledge that they can't hope to go anywhere else and reap the same wage/benefits.
When a place is full of people whose primary goal is to last long enough to retire with a pension or simply collect a stable check any perceived threat to the status quo, much less real change is out of the question.
4. Time off
Scheduling becomes a nightmare as someone or other is always off. Absolutely nothing gets done from the second week of November to the third week of January.
Most senior employees are gone at least 5 weeks a year.
When someone does finally retire, the position might be held up a year or more as they burn off accrued leave.
5. Big fish, small pond. Government tends to promote from within for most positions.
This compounds number 2 and 3 as the complacent culture of caring only for the next check and retirement exists from the top down.
Towers of management are created as moving up becomes the only/most effective way to increase salary at longevity.