Forget efficient.
That is not what you want running anything. All they do is redistribute and ration, but they themselves are not in the “production” side on anything.
When the government shut down during Covid and 75% of all federal employees stayed home for nearly 6 months, what happened? Did the earth fall out of orbit? Did it wobble off axis?
TSA (completely), 1/2 of the FBI, the Department of Education (completely), DEA (completely - redundant)... You can literally get rid of 1/2 of all federal government and still get the essential tasks done just as well. Our federal government is a bloated beast that is nothing more than “good ideas” which keep adding more and more to it with every administration that wants to seize the headlines and show action after some crisis or perceived crisis (EPA, DHS, DEA...). It's mostly junk which then gets a budget and sold to the audience (public) as some huge and necessary functions which needs ever more tax money and authority to regulate peoples lives once created, and before long you have the DEA telling pharmacies that every sale of nonprescription decongestants needs reported to them (as was the case).
Much which the federal government does is supposed to be a function of the state by the 10th Amendment. But who cares about the US Constitution anymore. Any mention of that today makes one a right wing radical.
Government: salary based jobs where people are not paid by a customer (disconnected). No liability. Political leadership that is appointed. No bottom line (i.e. not trying to maximize ROI nor viewing risk in a functional manner).
So you end up with a lot of government agencies reporting all their great accomplishments year after year, giving themselves a 90% (you always need to give yourself that 10% room for self improvement) but in reality they are failing. You have folks waiting in line 3 and 4 hours for a visa, in the weather, some older and it takes 3 months to get a passport which they still can't get right many times: US State Department. You have a VA that isn't too great. A US Postal Service that isn't to great (poor operating hours, bad customer service... but they have a great retirement plan and pay well - with the tax payer chipping in of course)...
A federal government is needed, but they need kept as small as possible while states and in particular the private sector fills these roles.
+1