...and I spent my early career there (and several years in communist or former communist countries). In the absence of a real "profit motive," which has been wrongly demonized, the only motive is to build a bigger kingdom.

Essentially the more you are incompetent, the more resources you can scare out of the taxpayers. Your staff and resources grow and that growth becomes the new base from which to proclaim you need more than what you have.

The longer cycle goes like this:

1. Desire to build a bigger kingdom with more staff and more resources (which also makes your job easier)
2. A monopoly on the service provided (ie you can't choose to go to a private DMV; fans in Logan have no other D1 school to fan)
3. Don't do your job.
4. Make the failures evident to the public
5. Blame the lack of resources (staff, funds) to scare the public
6. Public pressure makes lawmakers reward the complainer with more staff and funds
7. The bureaucrat can do even less work and have control of more funds, which creates the milieu for Step 1.