See "Fact Sheet on the Continued Thickening of Government" by Paul Light.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/fact-sheet-on-the-continued-thickening-of-government/

Light is famous for the book, The True Size of Government, in which he wrote about the "shadow workforce" of contractor personnel.

If government sometimes fails us, the "Fact Sheet," though written in 2004, may provide some clues as to why. And the government has probably thickened some more since then,

So true.  A little dated but still correct.  To this I’ll add new agendas and new initiatives constantly occur.  Senior officials need to appoint new people to lead those.  But no one removes those in charge of old programs that fade away

 

This discussion reminds me of a book I just finished - The Good Life and its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement. Granted, it's from 1995, but it's a truly enlightening read about how Americans, once accepting of some common setbacks (unemployment, job insecurity, retirement worries), are no longer willing to stomach those pitfalls. Or anything like it. So Government has been pressed into service as the end all solution for so many things. As such, Government programs have continued to expand since post-WWII, and are rarely rolled back because of the political clout of the stakeholders.

So what if a given Government program is essentially failing, expensive, or obsolete? Benefits (Social security is discussed at length) that have been granted to Americans are now seen as "rights," even to those who don't need them (like the wealthy over-65 crowd). A few other social programs that provide the so-called safety net to folks are rarely reworked or reimagined; rather, more cash is thrown at it, lest strong political constituencies start making noise. 

Pain avoidance over pain tolerance.