In the public debate about the “proper” size of government, the discussion often overlooks the fact that the number of federal employees relative to the size of the U.S. population has been shrinking. Even as the number and complexity of services provided by the government has increased over the years, the amount of federal civilian employees has stayed relatively stable. In absolute terms, today’s workforce of about 2 million people is smaller than the workforce that served at the height of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.