OPM is the agency that essentially makes it impossible to FIRE a Federal employee.
Good. Very good.
The original idea of the Civil Service was and still is good- hiring should be done only on the basis of competence and qualifications, not political affiliation, nor should anyone be terminated because of their political views. It’s still a good policy at the core, as long as objective criteria for performance and employment are followed.
It was not an effective or efficient way to run government when everyone hired under one party was fired when another party was elected.
Someone who is hired shouldn’t be able to be fired (for anything other than nonperformance, etc.) no matter WHO wins in 2020 merely because they are a Trump supporter. And vice versa. Prior to the Civil Service we had the ‘spoils system’ which was a hell of a lot worse. The problem has been that the criteria for non-performance has been degraded too far, so that incompetence and corruption can’t be punished. One can argue if salaries and benefits are too high, or that performance standards and hiring standards are too low. However there is no reason why individual departments can’t easily follow Civil Service rules.