For what it's worth regarding working at cross-purposes, most people anywhere tend to generally think of U.S. government agencies as these very focused monolithic hives filled with people who are mostly all on the same page.
But same as you described the discrepancy between different agencies' priorities, in reality, they're all largely fragmented as individual entities as well. With little fiefdoms here, little fiefdoms there, budget battles, pet projects, clawing of funds, burrowing. Agencies are held together by two things - a dusty org chart that's drifted far away from reality long ago, and procedural stuff like budgeting and delegation of authority that just has to be observed.
Between duplicative functions performed by competing departments and counterproductive internal priorities that reflect the coteries they come from, IMO, not that dissimilar from larger established private companies.
But same as you described the discrepancy between different agencies' priorities, in reality, they're all largely fragmented as individual entities as well. With little fiefdoms here, little fiefdoms there, budget battles, pet projects, clawing of funds, burrowing. Agencies are held together by two things - a dusty org chart that's drifted far away from reality long ago, and procedural stuff like budgeting and delegation of authority that just has to be observed.
Between duplicative functions performed by competing departments and counterproductive internal priorities that reflect the coteries they come from, IMO, not that dissimilar from larger established private companies.