It is increasingly less able to attract the people it needs, and increasingly less able to keep them, whether they are clerical workers, medical specialists or top political appointees.
And at least partly because of that, its day-to-day performance has become increasingly suspect, in everything from defense procurement to meat inspection.
When the air traffic system clogs, the Internal Revenue Service misinforms taxpayers or the space shuttle program founders, the causes typically are multiple and complex - but always at the bottom are issues of individual competence. In the view of many federal managers, it is no wonder.
During the summer, 59 percent of federal executives surveyed by Government Executive magazine said their new hires were "marginally worse" or "much worse" than in the past. And 73 percent said the agency they worked for was experiencing "a brain drain" because of people leaving for opportunities in private employment, academia, or state or local government.
That revolving door spins so rapidly that installations employing technical people in some high-cost areas - like the Navy's engineering center outside San Francisco - report turnover of 40 to 50 percent every year.
"As soon as they have a track record, private industry snaps them up," said Navy spokesman David Easter. "We're kind of acclimated to it. It's a reality, and there's no way to beat it under current circumstances."
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In another expensive city, New York, the FBI has 300 unfilled jobs in its office, a 20 percent vacancy rate. Trying to prevent more losses, the FBI just raised the salaries of its experienced New York agents by 25 percent, to $39,000 a year - about $1,000 more than a rookie New York police officer.
