There are plenty of motivated actors that are terrified that the government will do a good job, and so they work to sabotage it so it won't be effective competition.

Right, and I'd argue that the belief that it can't do things well frequently comes from the government being deliberately handicapped by those who believe it should't do things well. For example crippling (or outright trying to destroy) the US Postal Service out of the belief (or vested interest) that private delivery companies shouldn't have to compete against a publicly subsidized service.