Having worked in FAANG and for the Feds (on a project that was in collaboration with 18F, to boot), I respectfully disagree. You simply do not get the same calibre of technical operators or even just product operators in the federal government, full stop. Maybe they exist, but they're going to be occupying high up/plum positions because people like that are so rare.

In practice, it is software consulting companies that are doing all of the heavy lifting while the federal workers largely sit back and collect their paycheck - and talented operators are extremely rare there as well.