>it's actually dangerous to the careers of civil servants to do anything innovative
As a general rule, this is probably true. But there are certainly roles where people are encourage to innovate. Remember, the government is huuuge. If you get a job in a legitimate research lab, you are not only encouraged, but expected to innovate. I'd be careful we're not conflating something like an operations role with that of a research role. (Although, to your point, there is some value in ops people innovating, too).
As someone who has worked at such research labs I disagree. Innovation is encouraged, sure, but the research funding model, agencies, and most research labs create environments that push work on small iterative efforts and system gaming.
We as a society have stopped making sure our folks have overall stability in their jobs and as such, maintaining stable income for most is a priority. We don't accept failure, we don't proportionately reward risk taking (and instead, promote risk passing/mitigating), and were increasingly forgetting that regular failure is part of life. As such, even "innovative" labs are increasingly becoming less innovative, IMHO.
Where you see innovation happening is where there's typically piles of capital that provide people the stability and environments to take risks and fail, combined of course with luck or foresight in choosing the correct paths forward. That or in places where people sacrifice aspects of their own life to move something forward through some passion, obsession, etc. which is not a market of people I want to compete with.
Yes I meant people in government who are responsible for spending money and overseeing programs. NASA and NIH scientists and DARPA PMs are amazing innovators that should be celebrated. All of these people are responsible for an incredibly small piece of government spending.
As a general rule, this is probably true. But there are certainly roles where people are encourage to innovate. Remember, the government is huuuge. If you get a job in a legitimate research lab, you are not only encouraged, but expected to innovate. I'd be careful we're not conflating something like an operations role with that of a research role. (Although, to your point, there is some value in ops people innovating, too).