Why does it have to be a "job protection system"? Why can't it be a "specialized knowledge preservation system", or a "critical expertise conservation system"?

It's not like hands-on rocketry experience is an easy skillset to recover once your organization has lost it. It is eminently sensible and proper for such an organization to make every effort to retain an experienced rocketry workforce, even if it means spending their budget on "place-holder" projects during lean times. Better to protect these jobs now, than have to rebuild a competent staff of rocket scientists, engineers, and managers from scratch later on... IMO, of course.