> IMO wherever someone says "the government" we should mentally substitute "we all, collectively".
No, we should substitute "unaccountable bureaucrats". The people who enter and leave power from elections are not the source of the daily frustrations people have with government, it's the rest.
If this is in fact an issue where you life, then you should consider stopping to elect politicians that allow bureaucrats to be unaccountable. Or stop believing politicians who rave on about how bureaucrats are unaccountable while they themselves have the power to shape systems where that would not be the case.
how do you think that alleged amorphous mass of unaccountable bureaucrats got their jobs?