[pmyteh]

These are the major concerns of the academic field known as 'public administration'. Running government services is easier than a private sector business in some senses (e.g. not subject to market fluctuations) and harder in others (e.g. no single 'bottom line' to optimise). We know how to minimise corruption quite well, but that comes with costs (e.g. rigid procurement rules) that also have downsides. Like everything else, public admin is hard and comes with unwelcome tradeoffs and decisions.

As for why it doesn't get that much political attention, I believe it's mostly because it's normally not that controversial in a partisan sense. Most political parties don't run on a 'corruption is good' ticket, and both left and right parties would normally like more efficient public services: the left so they can deliver more public goods for a given amount of money, and the right to allow them to reduce taxes. Which is not to say it doesn't ever become salient: the efficiency of public services was a big thing in US politics in the 90s, for example.