It is all a matter of timing; the sine wave of discontent in the service and the sine wave of hiring in the civil sector. However with the services getting smaller and smaller then the effect on those people leaving has more impact.
That said this is nothing new. It has all happened before. This time though it looks like with the ROS of 5 years on PAS and other examples in other branches that at least manning are aware and attempting to do something about it.
The lack of a payrise though for individuals at the top of their paybands, will certainly increase those in the discontented pool.