[Mistletoe]

I remember on some radio show many years back a program where tech people were going back to government to make the tech better. They interviewed the guy that started it and it was really inspiring. I wish I could remember more details. These are true patriots.

[metalang]

You might be thinking of the US Digital Service (https://www.usds.gov/)

[joquarky]

https://codeforamerica.org/ sounds similar

[SteveGerencser]

People like Matt Cutts left Google to do exactly this. Much happier than when he was the head of the Google Search Spam team.