Among the ambitious and entrepreneurial, this sort of behavior is nothing new.
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin relates how he found himself as a government official for the colony of Pennsylvania and then proceeded to hire his own printing shop whenever his office needed to publish a widely circulated document or pamphlet.
I think the perception has changed a great deal since then. Note that the USA government hired on a spoils-based system until 1883: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system
It would be brilliant to see an analysis of how commonplace this and other types of corruption were historically and geographically.
In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin relates how he found himself as a government official for the colony of Pennsylvania and then proceeded to hire his own printing shop whenever his office needed to publish a widely circulated document or pamphlet.
BTW, that autobiography is a great read. you can find it for free on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20203/20203-h/20203-h.htm