Thoughts on getting a (federal) government position?

From the comments, a good request from "Postdoc":

[C]an you or someone else with inside knowledge put together a guide for how to get through government job applications? If anybody has ever found a job through USAJobs, you know how onerous and painful the application process is. You have to register for a new account for like 3 different sites before you even get to the application for some of them! And everything I've read says they're intensely specific, so one mistake and your app gets tossed.

Here's the last time we talked about this issue, over two years ago. I thought this comment, this comment and this one were good.

Readers, your thoughts on USAjobs and applying for state and municipal positions in general?