Lazy civilian government employees is a stereotype, but one that isn’t entirely without basis. Certain factors in civilian employment by the government make firing someone rather difficult at times. I knew a captain who documented mounds of evidence on a lazy, incompetent and dishonest civilian, and still got sued and had to go to court to get the firing completed. Whole issue ended up on the evening news.
The stereotype is of course not fair to 99% of civil service employees. Without the civilians with the planet-sized brains figuring out all the math/engineering stuff, I couldn’t do my job, so I’m grateful. But that at least explains where the view comes from. There are a few more ways to leech off the government than in regular corporate America.
As for “deserving of pay,” I don’t think that military members are more deserving of timely pay. I think the point was that there just seems to be something particularly disturbing about not getting paid by the government you swore to defend with your life. Since most civilians don’t get paid by the government, they really don’t even factor in this particular argument because there pay works in a different manner. But of course, they do deserve to get paid on time if they are doing their job.
But lately, pay problems have just been a fact of life. Especially with the new personnel system, which has glitches and bugs galore. I knew people who got paid $30 a month for multiple months in a row. Tough to deal with early on in a career. They’ll fix it one of these days. 
Of the 20 or so people who work in the same shop as me, I would say we live rather happy, normal lower-middle to middle-class lives. Just like normal Americans, but with trips to the desert thrown in from time to time. I know us in the Air Force like to brag about how well airmen are treated as a whole, and practically every officer and NCO I know would throw themselves in front of a bus for a good troop. Yeah, enlisted troops could still be paid better, but my personal experience does not reflect the above comments. YMMV.