Contractors in government

Something that has bothered me for a long time is the contractor situation in the government. I could probably lay out what I mean by that better, maybe later. All I will say for now is that it came back to my mind this morning. I decided to look it up, especially after the research I did earlier this week, that alerted me to the fact that having contractors gives the illusion that the government is smaller and mentioned something about the number of civil servants getting reduced. So this Federal Times article stated that the 1994 Federal Workforce Restructuring Act eliminated 273,000 positions. It mentions that this movement began in the 80s, which makes sense given Reagan's policy.  I've seen Donald Kettl's name more than once. It seems that he's an expert in the federal government. I think I also read that he's retired. 

The online publication from the Volcker Alliance entitled The True Size of Government was also enlightening.