Government Forms

Why do governments and "official" bodies have to make their paperwork so painful?
I understand that legal requirements need to be met, but can't a significant portion of the big words and explanations associated with those be put into an appendix or something?

Why not use plain English?

Why not simply give instructions that say, essentially:
A. Do this...
B. Then do this...
C. Then put this here...
D. And finish up with this...

Why not hire a designer to clarify big documents, adding some colour or shading or boxes or other elements to help make things clear?

Why not do a review of a user's "flow" through the process and try to clean up the usability?

It certainly doesn't seem like they've done anything like this.
(If they have, the people doing it need to be fired immediately).

Maybe the government doesn't care too much, since they don't see us as "customers". We have no choice but to go through them, so why bother putting effort into making the experience somewhat comfortable?

It seems obvious, though, that there must be an enormous number of avoidable errors in the various documents and forms that they process. Plus, aren't they human beings (okay, maybe not the politicians or some of the drones working in the offices, but at least a few people there must be decent) and have some basic desire to simply not be hated? So, on both a practical (cost and effort-saving) and emotional (being friendly and helpful) level, every organization could benefit from just being a bit more clear and usable.