Not working oneself out of a job

There is an old saying that a person does not work oneself out of a job. The need to have a steady flow of paid work so as to have assured income, is most likely in the back of the mind's of those of us who work for a living. It is likely to get us to unconsciously do those little sidesteps that might have led to a permanent solution to the task, meaning that we would have to then look for a new way to make a living, and that can be scary.

It can show up in the effort to treat the symptoms of a problem, instead of finding and fixing the background cause.

Yet, the world is full of things needing done, if there were just enough competent people to do them. But people are far more willing to keep the status quo, doing the routine job just patching up things instead of really fixing them.

Is there a fix for this problem?