In a better time I would expect the government to step in a acquire this fundamental service and fund it with tax money. Right now? The only intervention I would expect is a massive subsidy to pay Google to keep providing it, while also letting them continue to spy on everyone's mail (which is a crime, but not if the mail is on a computer, I guess).
Government-operated Gmail would become such a massive cesspool of spam and hijacked accounts. It'd be spectacular.
Do you believe that if the government provided email, that the government wouldn't keep track of everything you did on it?
oh yes, government-run email.
what could possibly go wrong